(Yicai Global) July 25 -- China's ice-snow tourism market is on the rise as the country prepares to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, China National Tourism Administration said recently.

The games will convert some 50 million Chinese into winter sports participants, with the number of ice-snow tourists surpassing 300 million, the department forecast. It estimates the industry volume will top CNY1 trillion (USD148 billion) and winter sports equipment sales will reach CNY35 billion, state-run news agency Xinhua quoted Li Jinzao, head of the administration, as saying.

China's northern Inner Mongolia and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region are rich in resources for the industry and have unique local cultures, Li added, saying the tourism sector can be upgraded by bundling winter holidaymaking with folk tourism products.

For example, he added, ice-snow tourism in Harbin, the capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, makes up roughly half of the total local tourism revenue. In the neighboring Jilin province, the figure is about a third.