(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- Skiing in China, a trend initiated by the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, is gaining traction on tourism platforms this winter as reservations have more than doubled on Qunar.Com from pre-pandemic levels.

This month, ski pass bookings nationwide grew by 147 percent from the same period in 2019, a time before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Big Data statistics from travel site Qunar.Com. The search word 'skiing' has become four times as popular as it was a month ago.

Lifestyle platform Meituan shows that between Nov. 1 and Nov. 9, group-buy orders for ski passes more than tripled from the same period in 2019.

The emerging winter sport in China is also driving hotel bookings. Forlong Four Seasons Town, a resort in Hebei province's Zhangjiakou which hosted some games during the Olympics, has amassed over CNY20 million (USD2.7 million) of pre-sold ski passes and accommodation, according to data from Meituan and Dianping.Com. Almost 1,200 hotel rooms have been booked for the upcoming weekend of Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 when the resort will start operating its ski area for the first time this year.

Tujia, an Airbnb-like platform, revealed that accommodation linked to keywords 'skiing' and 'ski site' more than tripled as of Nov. 8 from the same period in 2019. Bookings for homestays in areas fit for skiing increased by 30 percent while prices average nearly CNY800 (USD110) per reservation.

In-door skiing is also becoming popular. Since this month, ticket sales for in-door ski areas in Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Kunming almost tripled from the same period in 2019, according to Qunar.Com. The ticket sales of Sunac Snow Park in Guangzhou increased by up to 170 percent.

Editor: Emmi Laine