Abstract
China′s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will promote rapid development of domestic ski tourism. More than 10 provinces in the northern China list ski tourism as a new source of growth in the tourism industry. Formulating a scientific evaluation system is an important foundation for ski resort development. By referring to the conditions of existing international ski resorts, a comprehensive index system for evaluating ski resort development was developed based on natural factors, human factors, athletic sports, and popular ski tourism. The system was composed of one target layer, two indices, seven sub-indices and twenty-five basic indices. Based on data collected during a field investigation in 2012 and on a statistical model, the development conditions of the following ski resorts were quantified: Yabuli Ski Resort in Heilongjiang Province and Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Province in Northeast China, Wanlong Ski Resort in Hebei Province and Nanshan Ski Resort in Beijing in the northern China, and Silk Road International Ski Resort in Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in the northwestern China. The resulting index values of development conditions at Beidahu, Yabuli, Wanlong, Nanshan, and Silk Road International Ski Resorts were 0.304, 0.278, 0.270, 0.214, and–0.025, respectively. Various natural and human factors exert positive and negative effects on the development potential of ski resorts. The development conditions of the five ski resorts were inferior to those of first-class international resorts. Therefore, the development conditions of the five ski resorts should be improved with future construction.
Highlights
In the early stages of its development, skiing was introduced in the northern Europe, e.g., Norway and Sweden
Yabuli and Wanlong Ski Resorts received a good score on the index of comprehensive development, Nanshan received a moderate score, and Silk Road International Ski Resort received a relatively poor score
The results of this study indicate that the five ski resorts are generally the best ski resorts in China
Summary
In the early stages of its development, skiing was introduced in the northern Europe, e.g., Norway and Sweden. In the middle of the 19th century, skiing developed into a popular tourist activity that satisfied social and cultural needs and combined sport, recreation, and athletic endeavors. Following more than 100 years of development, ski tourism has become a major industry in many countries endowed with rich snow resources, and the scale of the skiing industry has increased rapidly. In 2014, there were 2130 outdoor ski resorts with more than four lifts in 70 countries. Since the 1990s, China has become one of the most rapidly developing countries in terms of hosting a ski tourism industry. By 2014, 350 ski resorts with more than one ski run had been built in China. Among them, Received date: 2015-04-30; accepted date: 2015-08-21 Foundation item: Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 41271186, 41271556), National Science and Chinese Geographical Science 2016 Vol 26 No 3
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
