According to Tuniu's 2023-2024 Ice and Snow Season Tourism Consumption Trends** released on November 6, the number of user trips and tourism consumption in the 2023-2024 ice and snow season will usher in explosive growth.
With the continuous expansion of the scale of the ice and snow tourism market, the consumption of ice and snow tourism is developing in the direction of diversification, specialization and segmentation. "Ice and snow + leisure tourism", "ice and snow + health care" and "ice and snow + sports" are the main development models of the domestic ice and snow tourism market.
In the future, ice and snow tourism will become a new growth point for the tourism industry. However, in the development of ice and snow tourism, some problems and challenges have also been exposed.
01 The connotation of high-quality development of the ice and snow tourism industry
1.Demand is the internal driving force for the high-quality development of the industry
The existence of investment bubbles and speculation has caused a large number of ineffective or inefficient investments under the leadership of capital in industrial development, resulting in low efficiency of industrial development. Only by returning to the fundamentals of industrial development, guided by demand, and meeting the needs of real ice and snow tourism consumers, can the high-quality development of the ice and snow tourism industry have roots.
China's ice and snow tourism has not formed a strong ice and snow cultural atmosphere, and cultivating consumers' ice and snow hobbies and paying attention to their ice and snow tourism needs is the core of realizing the high-quality development of ice and snow tourism. From the perspective of the demand of ice and snow tourists, the "quantity" requirements for the richness of ice and snow tourism products, the "quality" requirements for product quality, and the "cost-effective" requirements for consumer experience are the internal development driving forces for the ice and snow tourism industry to achieve high-quality development and meet consumer needs.
2.Supply is the core of high-quality industrial development
The demand of ice and snow tourists for diversified, high-quality and cost-effective ice and snow tourism products has forced the innovation and development of the supply side of the ice and snow tourism industry. In line with tourists' demand for "volume", the supply side needs to strengthen its development momentum, and continue to develop diversified ice and snow tourism products and services that meet market demand with innovation as the driving force.
In line with tourists' demand for "quality", the supply side needs to continuously optimize and improve the industrial structure, eliminate low-quality products that do not meet market demand and industrial development direction, and innovatively provide higher quality ice and snow tourism products and services to achieve continuous optimization of the ice and snow tourism industry structure. In line with tourists' demand for "efficiency", the supply side needs to continuously improve the technical efficiency, labor efficiency and capital efficiency of the ice and snow tourism industry to maximize the benefits of industrial development.
3.Management is the guarantee for the high-quality development of the industry
* The department promotes industrial transformation and upgrading through the introduction of relevant policies, and provides overall guidance, support, management and other guarantees for high-quality development, which is the external driving force for high-quality development of the industry. The high-quality development of the ice and snow tourism industry requires the first-class department to scientifically guide the development direction of the ice and snow tourism industry, and continuously optimize the industrial development environment by improving infrastructure and public services, reducing entry barriers, improving work efficiency, etc., so as to attract high-quality market players to enter the field of ice and snow tourism supply and enhance industrial competitiveness.
02 Problems and challenges in the development of ice and snow tourism
1.Single tourism product
The monolithic nature of tourism products is often due to a lack of innovative thinking and a failure to fully explore local characteristics. To solve this problem, scenic spots can introduce diversified ice and snow tourism activities, such as: ice and snow culture experience, snow sculptures, ice sculpture exhibitions, ice and snow light and shadow art, etc., and at the same time, some ice and snow tourism projects combined with local culture can also be designed to attract more types of tourists and meet their different needs.
2.Seasonality is obviousIce and snow tourism is significantly affected by seasonality, mainly in winter. This leaves tourism activity in a relatively depressed state during the non-winter period. In order to solve this problem, scenic spots can try to develop some summer tourism projects, such as hiking, camping, etc., or introduce some tourism projects suitable for all seasons, such as hot springs, outdoor sports, etc., to achieve a balanced development of tourism.
3.Lack of cultural connotationIce and snow tourism is not only about experiencing ice and snow sports, but also about understanding and experiencing local culture through ice and snow. However, when some scenic spots develop ice and snow tourism, they often only focus on ice and snow sports themselves, while ignoring the integration of cultural connotation. In order to enhance the attractiveness of ice and snow tourism, scenic spots can dig deep into local culture and integrate cultural elements into ice and snow tourism projects, such as holding ice and snow cultural festivals, ice and snow folk customs experience, and enriching more "ice and snow + cultural tourism" formats.
4.Inadequate construction of facilitiesIn some scenic spots, there may be deficiencies in the construction of facilities, such as inadequate catering services and poor accommodation conditions. This affects the travel experience and satisfaction of tourists. In order to improve this situation, the scenic spot needs to increase investment in facility construction and business investment, improve the quality of catering and accommodation services, especially catering services, and establish a business partnership relationship with farmers in the surrounding villages, so that the surrounding villagers can integrate into the development of the ice and snow tourism industry, and solve the problem of unbalanced development of the business format and service personnel in the scenic spot in the off-peak season to meet the needs of tourists.
5.Lack of professionalsThe operation and development of ice and snow tourism requires talents with professional knowledge, such as ice and snow sports coaches, rescue personnel, tourism management personnel, etc. In scenic spots, there is often a lack of such professionals. This may be due to factors such as the remote location of the scenic spot, the low salary, and the limited career development prospects. To solve this problem, scenic spots need to strengthen the introduction and training of talents, such as cooperating with vocational and technical colleges to cultivate targeted talents, providing a good working environment and salary package, and formulating long-term talent training plans.
03 Suggestions for the development of ice and snow tourism industry
The development of ice and snow tourism in China has gone through three stages: initial, rapid development and initial maturity. After the analysis of internationally renowned ice and snow tourist resorts, it is not difficult to see that even world-renowned ski resorts account for less than 20% of the customer base of ski enthusiasts. Family customers and surrounding customers are the main players in the ice and snow tourism.
The China Tourism Academy and the Mafengwo Free Travel Big Data Joint Laboratory released the "China Ice and Snow Tourism Consumption Big Data Report (2022)" online. Among the ice and snow tourism consumer groups, first-tier cities ranked first with 36%, followed by new first-tier cities with 35%, and second-tier cities also reached 15%. In view of the development trend of "ice and snow + cultural tourism", how to develop ice and snow tourism, market positioning and product richness are the first issues to be considered.
1. Suggestions for the development of ice and snow tourism for family customers
Optimize tourism products. For family customers, ice and snow tourism products suitable for family travel can be designed, such as family packages, parent-child **, etc. At the same time, some ice and snow activities suitable for tourists of different ages can be developed, such as skiing two-dimensional, ice hockey, ice dragon boat, ice slide, etc., to meet the needs of different family members.
Provide parent-child space. Set up a special parent-child activity area in the scenic area to provide a spacious and safe playground for family tourists. You can set up some parent-child interactive projects, such as ice and snow carnival, snow treasure hunt, dog sledding, parent-child ice fishing, etc., to increase the interaction and fun between parents and children.
Enhance service facilities. Improve the service facilities in the scenic area, especially for family customers such as accommodation, catering and toilets. Family rooms, childcare services, and child-friendly dining options are available to increase the satisfaction of families.
Provide research experience. Integrate educational elements into ice and snow tourism products, and provide family tourists with a combination of learning, Xi and entertainment, such as the formation of ice and snow, the relationship between ice and snow and climate change, etc., so that parents and children can learn Xi together. At the same time, some ice and snow science experiments and observation activities can be arranged, such as making snow sculptures and ice sculptures, so that children can learn and Xi and feel the charm of ice and snow in practice.
Elevate your marketing strategy:Engage families with targeted marketing strategies. For example, you can post ice and snow tourism information for family tourists on social media**, launch special promotions for family travel, etc., to increase the attention and participation of family tourists.
2. In view of the problem of product richness, in addition to enriching the types of ski slopes and meeting the needs of the whole stage of master + beginner + family skiing, you can:
Enrich the design of tourist routes. Many ice and snow tourist attractions rely on mountain resources and belong to mountain-type tourist attractions, mainly relying on tourist routes to connect products with different themes and different degrees of difficulty to form route products for different customer groups. From the perspective of sightseeing products, find out the viewing points of scenic spots, and create scenic check-in points and form recreational routes through cableways, cable cars, ziplines, forest trails, bicycle paths and other landscape resources. **On the way, find out the hinterland space where leisure products can be introduced, and gradually enrich products such as canopy exploration, mountain trampoline, forest maze, and forest expansion. According to the length of recreation time or customer groups, travel routes with different durations and different themes are launched.
Supporting ice and snow theme town:Combined with the advantages of local culture and resources, we will build some ice and snow theme towns or valley cultural towns, etc., which can be large or small. According to the location of the scenic spot and the scale of the customer group that can be radiated, the scenic spots located in the first-tier cities or the surrounding areas of the new first-tier cities are gradually equipped with leisure and vacation towns, and the more economically developed the city, the higher the overnight rate. Synchronous docking of business and tour group markets, and continuous expansion of customers. The regional market is mainly sightseeing + leisure, and gradually supporting the food town with local catering characteristics to control the scale of investment. The content of activities related to the theme will be transformed into local cultural resources, so that the scenic spot will have activities every week, festivals every month, and constantly bring out new ones.
Launch night travel products in due course. For scenic spots that have entered the product innovation period, lighting and special effects technology can be used to create a nighttime ice and snow landscape and sightseeing experience. Set up an artistic light show in the scenic area, light up iconic check-in points and landmarks, and enrich night sightseeing products through art installation design, so that tourists can enjoy the beautiful scenery of ice and snow at night.