Ski resort operators say profits going downhill fast
Print Edition
WINTER sports have been growing in popularity since Beijing was last year awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Over the New Year holiday in January, the number of visitors to Chongli — which will host the skiing events in six years’ time — rose 30 percent from a year earlier to almost 130,000.
In Yabuli, a resort in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, the number of visitors between November 21 and December 31 last year rose 161 percent to more than 100,000.
The demand has been a boon for the skiing industry, but developing and running a resort is a costly business, said an industry insider.
“A cable car system costs 30 million yuan (US$4.6 million), and snowmakers cost at least 150,000 yuan,” said Wang Yong, the manager of Miaoxiangshan Skiing Park in Changchun, capital of northeast China’s Jilin Province.
“Wages have risen 15 percent this year. Making money is hard,” he said.
Another ski resort owner from northwest China’s Shaanxi Province said his company spent 150 million yuan to build a resort in 2014, but it won’t break even until 2021.
The increased competition is also making life more difficult, especially for smaller sites, said Yu Menghong, general manager of Zhaojin Culture and Tourism Investment Co in Shaanxi.
“Some small parks resort to price wars, which is not sustainable,” he said.
Yabuli once had nine resorts, though most of them operated at a loss.
“The moment I got off the train, men from several resorts raced to get me to go to their places. It was really annoying,” said Wang Xinrui, a skier from Beijing.
Another man said he was offered discounts at resorts in Changchun, which cut the price of skiing to as little as 40 yuan an hour or 90 yuan per day.
“It was exhausting comparing the prices, and hard to tell which one offered the best service,” he said.
Unnamed experts have called for more regulation of the market.
In 2014 in Yabuli the government integrated nine resorts so that skiers can now visit them all with a single pass.
Ma Chunye, manager of the Wanda Changbaishan Resort in Jilin, said operators should work together for the good of visitors and the future of the industry.
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