With 26 million skier days, China confirms its skiing boom

With 26 million skier days recorded in the 2024-2025 season, the Chinese ski market is experiencing spectacular growth. A recent report entitled “2024-2025 China Ski Industry White Paper” provides detailed insight into the boom in skiing in China. Published on August 26, 2025, by consultant Wu Bin (aka Benny Wu), this white paper provides a statistical overview of the development of Chinese skiing over the past season and highlights the key trends and prospects for this dynamic market. Here are the main findings of this landmark study, which illustrate how China has become a key player in global mountain tourism.

Market growth and momentum

The 2024-2025 season confirms the remarkable growth of skiing in China. The country now has 748 ski resorts in operation, including 66 indoor centers, totaling 26.05 million skier days over the winter—an increase of +12.9% in one year. At the same time, the number of Chinese skiers (unique participants) reached 13.55 million (+5.86% year-on-year). By way of comparison, this attendance places China among the world’s leading ski markets: in the previous season, the country recorded around 23 million skier-days, close to the level of Switzerland – a historic Alpine country that it now surpasses in terms of annual skiing volume.

The vitality of the Chinese market is also reflected in increased usage by skiers: the average number of ski days per skier rose from 1.80 to 1.92 in one season, a sign of growing loyalty among skiers. Swiss consultant Laurent Vanat noted in 2017 that “China is the only country in the world where the number of skier days is increasing,” predicting that it would quickly surpass European nations in terms of visitor numbers. Eight years later, these predictions have been fully confirmed on the Chinese slopes.

Expansion of indoor ski resorts

The growth of indoor ski centers (covered ski resorts) is the most striking phenomenon in the Chinese market. These indoor facilities alone welcomed 5.63 million visits in 2024-2025, representing 21.6% of national attendance. This spectacular growth (+15% in one year) reflects the opening of new giant facilities near major cities. China has thus established itself as the world leader in indoor skiing: seven of the ten largest indoor ski areas on the planet are now located on its soil.

The largest of these, Wintastar in Shanghai, offers 65,000 m² of indoor slopes. “China has become the world’s leading indoor skiing market, home to more than half of the world’s indoor ski centers,” observes Benny Wu. These facilities “break the constraints of terrain and seasonality” by offering easy, year-round access to skiing for city dwellers. By eliminating dependence on natural snowfall, indoor skiing makes it possible to democratize the sport, even in regions with mild climates or no mountains, thereby expanding the base of new skiers.

Concentration of destinations and modernization of facilities

The geography of Chinese skiing tends to be polarized around a few major regional hubs. The provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang (in the northeast of the country), the Xinjiang region (in the west), as well as the province of Hebei and the metropolis of Beijing, account for the majority of ski areas and visits. These areas—which benefit from either favorable terrain or infrastructure inherited from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics (such as the Chongli district in Hebei)—are driving forces behind Chinese winter tourism.

At the same time, the level of equipment in resorts is improving rapidly. In 2025, there will be 181 resorts equipped with ski lifts (chairlifts, gondola lifts, etc.), including 41 with high-performance detachable lifts, for a total of 119 installations in service. This reflects the upgrading of Chinese resorts to international standards. Each season, new lifts are installed—30 were installed in the 2023-2024 season alone—improving the throughput and attractiveness of the main resorts. The acceleration of modernization is therefore underway to keep pace with the increase in demand.

Profiles and practices of Chinese skiers

The skier base is expanding and becoming more structured. Long dominated by novices trying out the sport for the first time, the Chinese resort audience is maturing. The report indicates a rebalancing of the ratio between beginners and experienced skiers.

Urban customers, particularly the younger generations, favor indoor centers in cities and small local resorts, which are more suitable for learning. At the same time, a clear typology of offerings is emerging, with three segments set to coexist:

• The tourist experience – occasional skiing, often as part of a fun outing or trip, to enjoy the snow.
• Local learning – regular visits to urban ski sites (indoor centers or suburban slopes), allowing beginners to learn close to home.
• Destination stays – real ski vacations in the country’s large snow-covered areas, for customers looking for a complete winter getaway.

This segmentation reflects the democratization of skiing in China, where curious occasional skiers coexist with a growing core of regular enthusiasts. Nevertheless, the dropout rate after the first experience remains a major challenge. According to experts, up to 70% of annual visitors are beginners who do not return the following winter – a phenomenon linked to sometimes inadequate introductory lessons, the high cost of skiing, and the lack of a well-established skiing culture in the country. Laurent Vanat points out that “the dropout rate in China is higher than in Europe… many people take up the sport, but few return to it.” Retaining these new skiers is therefore a crucial challenge for sustaining long-term market growth.

Outlook and challenges

Buoyed by the legacy of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the ski industry in China is riding an unprecedented wave of momentum to continue its expansion. The combination of a booming offering (particularly thanks to innovative indoor centers), massive investment, and rising tourist demand makes China a country at the forefront of innovation, determined to develop skiing in a sustainable way. The Chinese authorities continue to encourage this trend, with the ambition announced in 2015 to train “300 million new enthusiasts” in winter sports in order to make China the world’s leading ski market. This objective is reflected in concrete initiatives supporting the sector:

• Huge investments – construction of hundreds of ski resorts, ice rinks, and related infrastructure across the country.
• Promotion in schools – introduction of winter sports into school curricula to introduce young people to skiing and skating.
• Development of winter tourism – promotion of mountain destinations and related Nordic activities to attract a wider audience, including non-skiers.

Thanks to these efforts, China is on track to forge a true “ski culture”. The enthusiasm generated by the Beijing Olympics has already led to an increase in the number of skiers and large-scale modernization of facilities. In the coming years, the challenge will be to maintain sustainable growth—both economically and environmentally—while improving skier training (quality of instruction, supervision of beginners) and optimizing facility management (sustainable snowmaking, energy efficiency of indoor centers, etc.).