Skiing in China: An uphill climb
(iht.com)
Updated: 2006-02-10 09:28

The world's biggest ski makers have seen the future, and it begins at places like Nanshan Ski Resort in China, where the snow is man-made and each of the 12 runs lasts less than a minute.

A woman skis on a beginner slope at the Nanshan ski resort. [AP]

Nanshan and the 204 other ski areas in China could become major outlets for Quiksilver, owner of Skis Rossignol, and Amer Sports, whose brands include Atomic and Salomon. Sales of ski gear have stalled in Europe and the United States.

"China has all the ingredients: mountains, snow, people, and economic enrichment," says Jean-Francois Gautier, president of Skis Rossignol, which is based in Voiron, France. "It would be a big mistake not to be there."

The Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, could give China its first skiing gold medals, helping Quiksilver and its competitors to lure more of the 1.3 billion Chinese to the slopes. Skis Rossignol's local agent last month sponsored the 2006 Youth Cup slalom competition near Beijing to pique interest in the sport before the Games.

The number of Chinese who went skiing last year rose to three million from 300,000 in 2000, as economic growth created a middle class with money to spend on leisure. Disposable income in urban areas, home to two-fifths of the population, rose 9.6 percent in real terms in 2005 to 10,493 yuan, or $1,301, a person.

"Things move fast in China," says Maurizio Di Trani, head of marketing at Tecnica of Montebelluna, Italy, which makes ski boots under the Nordica, Tecnica and Dolomite brands. "There's such energy and thirst for new experiences."

For now, that appetite has not translated into booming sales of equipment. China remains a tiny part of the $7 billion ski industry, with the Beijing-based China Ski Association reporting that only 10,000 pairs of skis were sold in the country last year, compared with 350,000 pairs purchased in France.

Skiing will not take off in China until investors improve its resorts, especially in the mountains near Harbin, on the northeastern border with Russia, says Michael Schineis, president of Atomic, the world's largest ski maker.

The Harbin Yabuli Ski Resort, China's biggest, is 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, from Harbin, itself a two-hour flight from Shanghai. Opened in 1996 for the third Asian Winter Games, its highest peak is 1,000 meters, or 3,281 feet, compared with 350 meters at Nanshan.

"They ski on hills and the only real mountains are difficult to get to," says Eric Guilpart, director of marketing at Compagnie des Alpes in Paris, Europe's largest manager of ski areas, including the Chamonix resorts in France. "It's not the sort of quality we look for."

Other companies are looking for properties in China.

"We are surveying the country for opportunities," says Tim McNulty, a spokesman for Intrawest of Vancouver, which manages Whistler in British Columbia. Intrawest is the largest ski resort manager in North America.

Triggering a boom in skiing is just a matter of marketing, says Ray Chen, director of International Sports Marketing's China division in Shanghai. People who whet their appetites on the small slopes near Beijing will eventually be attracted to bigger ski areas farther away.

"Incomes are rising and many Chinese tourists have started traveling to tropical locations for their holidays," Chen says. "There's no reason more of them won't want to go north, where skiing conditions are ideal."

The challenge is getting Chinese who have tried skiing to keep going back, says Remigio Brunelli, who has represented Tecnica in China for the past three years. People in China often ski in city clothes, even suits and ties, he says.

Equipment makers may get help from the Chinese government. Lifting the popularity of winter sports is an important part of China's Olympic sports strategy, says Duan Shijie, a deputy director of the General Administration of Sport in Beijing.

China is sending 76 athletes to Turin, its biggest team since attending its first Winter Games in 1980 at Lake Placid, New York. Li Nana and Guo Xinxin won gold and bronze in aerials at the world freestyle skiing championships last March in Finland, fanning hopes for victories in Turin.

Olympic fever is building as Beijing undergoes a $160 billion transformation before it is host to the 2008 Summer Games.

The ski industry is pinning its hopes on China, the world's fastest growing major economy, because Europe and North America have reached limits in terms of people who have access to mountains and can afford the sport.

"We have to go after new frontiers because demographics in Europe and the U.S. don't allow for much growth," says Richard Prothet, Skis Rossignol's head of exports. "The explosion of demand in China opens up enormous potential."