"The 2024-2025 ice and snow season is planned to hold more than 300 mass ice and snow sports events. my country's ice and snow sports are showing a booming development trend. Taking the Asian Winter Games as an opportunity, it will continue to inspire people's enthusiasm for participating in ice and snow sports." Recently, Yang Xuezhu, director of the Sports Economics Department of the General Administration of Sports of the State Administration of Sports, who is participating in the Asian Winter Games in Harbin, said in an interview with reporters.

Mr. Yang Xuezhu provided a set of data to reporters: the growth of skiing in my country's ice and snow sports is particularly obvious. From November 1, 2024 to February 4, 2025, the size of skiers continued to grow. 934 ski resorts in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country received a total of 151 million passengers, an increase of 27.8% year-on-year. From a monthly perspective, passenger flow continued to rise, with passenger flow of 42.048 million in November 2024, and 46.945 million in December, and 52.661 million in January 2025.

Across the country, northern my country is still the "main force" of skiing. Among them, Heilongjiang has received a total of 16.066 million ski passengers, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year; Xinjiang has reached 9.65 million, an increase of 30.5% year-on-year. The performance of skiing in the southern region is also very impressive. The cumulative skiing passenger flow in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces increased by 46.5% and 24.8% year-on-year respectively.

At the same time, the number of overseas skiers has continued to increase this year. This snow season, the incoming ski passenger flow reached 518,000, an increase of 29.8% year-on-year.

In November 2024, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Several Opinions on Stimulating the Vitality of the Ice and Snow Economy through the High-Quality Development of Ice and Snow Sports" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") proposed that by 2027, the total scale of my country's ice and snow economy will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, and by 2030, the total scale of the ice and snow economy will reach 1.5 trillion yuan. Since then, the General Administration of Sports has seized the 2024-2025 ice and snow season, and took the Harbin Asian Winter Conference as an opportunity to publicize and implement the "Opinions", release policy dividends, further stimulate the potential for ice and snow consumption, and promote the high-quality development of the ice and snow economy.

After the release of the "Opinions", the General Administration of Sports, in conjunction with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, introduced the main contents of the policy documents as soon as possible. At present, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and other places have introduced implementation measures to develop the ice and snow economy. Harbin seized the opportunity of the Asian Winter Conference and issued the "Implementation Plan for the "100-Day Action" for the Connotation-based High-Quality Development of Ice and Snow Tourism in Harbin", and proposed 60 specific measures.

During the Spring Festival, the General Administration of Sports seized the favorable opportunity of the Harbin Asian Winter Conference to be held and took multiple measures to further release the potential for ice and snow consumption.

Mr. Yang Xuezhu said that the impact of the Harbin Asian Winter Conference on economic and social development is comprehensive and long-term. In the next stage, the General Administration of Sports will continue to improve policy measures, strengthen service support, strengthen standardization construction, carry out statistical monitoring, further implement the requirements of the "Opinions", and consolidate and expand the results of "drive 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports".

(Guangming Daily, Harbin, February 13, Guangming Daily reporter Wang Dong and Zhang Shiying)