Winter sport is becoming more and more popular in Asia. The current Winter Olympics are held in South Korea, those in 2022 will be held in Beijing. At the turn of the millennium, China had almost no ski resorts, now there are hundreds of winter sport facilities, during the time of the 2022 Olympic Games, there could be more than 1,000. The objective of the Chinese government is to have 300 million winter sports people by 2022, 50 million of those shall be skiers.
This is of course a great opportunity for Swiss winter sport manufacturers. Switzerland has a long winter sport tradition and a lot of expertise in this sector.
Many Swiss manufacturers are now looking to expand their business in China, some examples are:
- Laaxer Weisse Arena Group, is a partner for the Secret Garden Area near Beijing, where part of the 2022 Olympics will be held.
- Ski manufacturer Stöckli sees China as its’ biggest foreign sales market in the future and plans to sell 20,000 skis there per year (now they sell 50,000 per year in total).
- Snowboard manufacturer Oxess delivers snowboards for the Chinese national team during the 2022 Olympics.
- Swiss manufacturer Mammut also wants to grow in China, they already sell their products on JD.com.
- Bartholet Seilbahnen will build a cableway for the Olympic, the company collaborates with a Chinese company for it. By now, the Swiss company itself is Chinese-owned.
- Many more Swiss companies are interested in the Asian winter sport market.
The main reason for the growth in China are the Winter Olympic Games, whether the boom can continue or not after the games and with less state support, is still unclear.
