Snow Tourism Research Articles

Strategies of Ice and Snow Tourism to Optimize Ecological Environment and Economic Growth from the Perspective of Sustainable Development.

Due to the successful holding of the Winter Olympics, China's enthusiasm for ice and snow sports has soared, and its enthusiasm for ice and snow tourism has also been further stimulated. At present, most of China's ice and snow tourism (IST) attractions are concentrated in the three eastern provinces. At the same time, due to the increasingly harsh environment, the natural landscape of IST is also shrinking. Therefore, this paper aims at studying the strategies of IST to optimize the ecological environment and economic growth from the perspective of sustainable development. First of all, this paper makes a certain introduction to the current situation of IST. After that, the current IST resources in China were analyzed, and the three northeastern provinces were taken as the research objects, and the distribution location, traffic conditions, and development trends of IST resources were studied in detail. Then, the autoregressive model is used to fit the tourism resources and tourist growth with the economic growth, and combined with the trend shown by the economic growth model, a strategy for the sustainable development of IST is proposed. The experimental results of this paper prove that the regional system attribute of IST resources and economic growth model is between 3 and 5, and the average is about 3.6, which shows that the growth of tourism resources has a positive correlation with economic growth. Therefore, from the perspective of sustainable development, the economic growth of the IST industry should also focus on the protection and humidity development of natural ice and snow landscapes.

Development mode and optimization path of typical ice and snow tourism destinations in China

Development mode and optimization path of typical ice and snow tourism destinations in China

Research on the innovative development path of Jilin ice and snow tourism fromthe perspective of cultural creativity

Research on the innovative development path of Jilin ice and snow tourism fromthe perspective of cultural creativity

Dynamic Forecasting Algorithm of Inbound Ice and Snow Tourism in China Based on Improved Deep Confidence Network

Ice and snow-based tourism is getting popular around the world and it is one of the major sources of revenue for a region with required facilities. According to a report by China Daily, China was expected to witness 230 million tourist visits in 2020-2021 with a total revenue generation surpassing 390 billion yuan. In order to promote the ice and snow tourism, proper arrangements such as accommodation, transport facility, and energy provision for heating and food need to be arranged as per the demand of the visitors at a certain period of time. A tourist prediction system can help in this regard for good estimation but considering the problems of traditional ice and snow tourism systems, specifically the prediction accuracy and long forecasting time, a dynamic forecasting algorithm for ice and snow inbound tourism based on an improved deep confidence network is proposed. The system analyzes the relationship between the demand for ice and snow inbound tourism and the level of national economic development, people’s living standards, demographic characteristics, traffic conditions, and tourism supply capacity. It then takes the influencing factors of ice and snow inbound tourism demand as sample data and arranges the sample data sequence. The inbound tourism demand dynamic prediction model uses an improved deep confidence network to learn and train the prediction model, input test data into the trained model, and output the dynamic prediction value of ice and snow inbound tourism demand in the output layer to obtain the prediction result. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has improved accuracy in predicting the demand of inbound tourism for ice and snow, whereas the forecasting time is reduced.

Fuzzy Neural Network-Based Evaluation Algorithm for Ice and Snow Tourism Competitiveness

This paper researches and analyzes the evaluation of the competitiveness of ice and snow tourism, uses the improved fuzzy neural network algorithm to process the system flow diagram of ice and snow tourism development through the function and characteristics of the power system of ice and snow tourism, and finally selects more than 40 indicators of the three subsystems of resources, economy, and culture. Based on the construction of cloud fuzzy neural network model, the above method is used for experimental comparison analysis, and experiments are conducted through University of California Irvine (UCI) dataset and engineering examples to compare with the traditional cloud model, fuzzy neural network, and BP neural network to analyze the operation efficiency, accuracy rate, and several rules of the algorithm. Through the experimental comparative analysis, the cloud fuzzy neural network can fully take into account the randomness and fuzziness of the data, optimize the generation of cloud rules, avoid multidimensional rule disasters, and ensure the operational efficiency of the algorithm; the accuracy rate of the algorithm is improved relative to that of the traditional technology, and it applies to a variety of datasets. And the software is used to test the ice and snow tourism industry system dynamics model to realize the correctness and robustness testing of the model. After the constructed model can reflect the real situation within the error range, the final policy simulation of the model is carried out.

Study on Glacial Tourism Exploitation in the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot Based on the AHP–ASEB Method

Due to the impact of COVID-19, people’s demand for non-contact tourism is increasing. The development of Internet technologies such as the Internet of Things, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) can meet this demand. Internet technology makes non-contact tourism grow. However, these new technologies are emerging only within application cases, which cannot provide comprehensive methodological guidance for tourism suppliers. Despite the booming development of winter tourism in China, there are still many problems, especially affecting the tourist experience.rarchy process (AHP) and activity, setting, experience and benefit (ASEB) grid analysis were used to analyze the activities, settings, experiences and benefits of the scenic spot from the tourist perspective taking the Dagu Glacier Scenic Spot (DGSS) as an example. The research aims to increase the attraction of the scenic zone, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of business in West China under the goal of improving tourists’ experiences. The results show that: subgoals of experience (E) and benefit (B) are the main directions of the development of ice and snow tourism in the DGSS. Furthermore, the threat of benefits (TB), the threat of setting (TS), the threat of experience (TE), the opportunities of benefits (OB), the opportunities of setting (OS), and the opportunities of experience (OE) are the main concerns.

A Prosperity Index Model of Regional Tourism Industry Based on Composite Index

In recent years, the ice and snow tourism industry has developed rapidly, which plays an important role in boosting regional economy. The prosperity index of the ice and snow tourism industry was compiled, and the early warning model of the ice and snow tourism industry in Heilongjiang Province of China was built, which was taken as a comprehensive scale to observe the fluctuation of the ice and snow tourism industry. Combined with the current economic situation, the composite index, the situation of the industry and the turning point of the industry cycle volatility are analyzed, to determine the situation and trend of the industry volatility. This can provide reference for the policy formulation of the ice and snow tourism industry in Heilongjiang province and the micro-management of tourism companies.

Research on the Integrated Development of Ice and Snow Industry and Health Industry——Take Genhe City and Tieli City as examples

With the rapid development of modern society and economy, people’s pursuit of health is becoming more and more comprehensive, involving all aspects of material and spirituality. However, the ice and snow industry and the health industry are closely related social and economic phenomena, and the integration of the two is gradually increasing.[1]In recent years, various tourism activities such as ice and snow tourism, health tourism, and adventure tourism have become a necessary choice for people to return to nature, get close to nature, and pursue a healthy life. This article takes the integrated development of ice and snow industry and health industry in Tieli City and Genhe City as an example. Discuss the necessity and basic conditions for the integrated development of the ice and snow industry and the health industry and initially designed the “ice and snow + health” product system.

Snow tourism and economic sustainability: the financial situation of ski resorts in Spain

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to analyse the profitability of ski resorts in Spain and identify its associated determining factors in order to verify whether these are economically sustainable taking into account the internal and external aspects affecting them. To this end, the article first addresses the importance of snow tourism in Spain, before going on to analyse the influence that climate change is having on this type of tourism. A series of economic and structural ratios are then applied to the financial statements of ski resorts in Spain with the aim of establishing a base diagnosis for their situation. Finally, a regression model is estimated, the results of which reveal the more profitable ski resorts at the economic level to be those with the largest stations, a direct relationship being observed between profitability and size. The results also confirm the negative consequences of high indebtedness and the non-significant effects of using snowmaking systems.

Symmetry Analysis in Analyzing Cognitive and Emotional Attitudes for Tourism Consumers by Applying Artificial Intelligence Python Technology

Symmetries play very important roles in the analysis of cognitive and emotional attitudes. The analysis with Python technology, including optimized artificial intelligence technology, is designed on the basis of symmetry principles. Destination image perception as a branch of destination image research is of great significance to tourists’ decision-making and destination image building. Ice-snow tourism is a hot topic nowadays, and research on perceptions of images of ice-snow tourism has become a focus. In this paper, python programming was used to crawl online travel journals and reviews about Jilin province’s ice-snow tourism on the Internet to analyze the frequency of frequently used words, their classification, word cloud and co-occurrence network, and other aspects of image perception, and proceed to the emotional perception of and emotional attitude to the emotional images and an overall image analysis. The study found that: (1) Perceptions of images of ice-snow tourism can be divided into five categories: tourism attractions, tourism activities, tourism facilities, tourism features and the tourism service environment. The frequency of tourism attractions is the highest, followed by tourism facilities and the tourism service environment. “Changbai Mountain” and “rime” are the core words, that is, tourists are most impressed by the scenic spot and landscape of “Changbai Mountain and rime.” (2) Positive emotional expressions accounted for 67.23% of perceptions of images of ice-snow tourism. Tourists gave a positive evaluation for Changbai Mountain, the snow landscape of Tianchi and skiing facilities. Meanwhile, passive emotional expressions accounted for 21.07% and tourists gave passive evaluations for travel, transportation, accommodation and catering. (3) Tourists spoke highly of overall images of ice-snow tourism in Jilin Province but few were willing to revisit. In the conclusion, strategies are put forward to improve image perceptions of ice-snow tourism and promote the sustainable development of ice and snow tourism.

Seasonal Variability of the Acoustic Climate of Ski Resorts in the Aosta Valley Territory

The Aosta Valley is an alpine region in north-west Italy that is characterized by a high level of naturalness, with extensive uninhabited areas that are distant from artificial sound sources. The Aosta Valley Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA-VdA) has been particularly sensitive to the preservation of the soundscape, which is considered an integral part of the landscape, since the laws on noise pollution were first introduced. The nature of the ski areas in the Aosta mountains, which undergoes changes throughout the year, is surely of great importance, especially during the winter season, when the number of visitors is particularly high. In fact, during the winter, the sounds of nature are replaced by those produced by recreation and sports activities. Mountain and snow tourism, which are developed in sensitive environmental contexts in the Aosta Valley, are sectors of immense social and economic importance. Much of this tourism takes place in ski resorts. Three mountain areas with different characteristics, in terms of attendance and recreational/sport activities, have been examined in this paper, as part of a collaboration between ARPA-VdA and the Politecnico di Torino. Acoustic measurements were performed in order to identify the seasonal variations of sound emissions from both natural and anthropic sound sources. In addition to the standard environmental acoustic descriptors foreseen by European legislation (LAeq, Ln, Lden, etc.), the harmonica (IH) index, which provides a quantitative evaluation of the acoustic quality on a zero to ten numerical scale, was used to qualify the acoustic climate of the three areas. The results presented in the paper provide useful information on a relevant subject—the preservation of the acoustic quality of a mountain area of touristic importance—which has been scarcely investigated so far.

Research on development strategy of ice and snow culture tourism derivatives in Jilin province

Abstract. With the rapid development of ice and snow tourism industry in Jilin Province, a new economic growth point has been formed. However, the development of ice and snow cultural tourism derivatives is still in its infancy, lacking of creative expansion in breadth and historical excavation in depth, low technological content of products, lacking of added value, single marketing method, and no industrial chain structure. It is an important way to break through the convergence of derivative design of ice and snow culture tourism to tap the ice and snow natural culture and folk culture resources, create interesting derivative image design and develop interactive technology.

The influence of high-speed rail on ice–snow tourism in northeastern China

Abstract Ice-snow tourism is trendy in the global tourism industry. High-speed rail improves the accessibility of these destinations. However, the influences of accessibility on regional economies are understudied. This study investigated changes in accessibility between urban areas and ice-snow tourist destinations after implementation of high-speed rail in northeastern China. Data on transportation networks, destinations, and economic factors were used to compute weighted mean travel times and daily accessibility, and a tourism-economy linkage model was utilized. After implementation, (1) the shortest intercity travel times were significantly shorter, (2) numbers of one-day and weekend trips significantly increased, (3) distribution of accessible tourist destinations expanded northward and southward, (4) isochrone analysis revealed that central cities promoted tourism development in nearby cities, and (5) intercity tourism-economy linkages increased. Accessibility to Shenyang was the most powerful influence on economic development. The tourism-economy linkages between Liaoyang and other cities were greatly enhanced between 2008 and 2018.

消费结构升级背景下吉林省冰雪旅游发展对策研究

消费结构升级背景下吉林省冰雪旅游发展对策研究

SEASONAL TOURISM DEMAND IN LEBANESE SKI RESORTS

Purpose of the study: The main objective of this study is to analyze the profile of Lebanese ski resorts’ visitors, their motivations, preferences, and perceptions. Thus, authors seek to analyze the characteristics of seasonal tourism demand in Lebanese ski resorts for the sake of reducing seasonality.
 Methodology: Quantitative methods were used and four out of the five ski resorts in Lebanon were analyzed. An online questionnaire was distributed to visitors, using a mix of self-selection and snowball sampling techniques. The questionnaire resulted in 206 respondents. Responses showed high internal validity with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.83.
 Main Findings: The relationship between place attachment and annual visitations was validated and authors were able to point the deteriorated value for money among resorts. Furthermore, the K-mean clustering resulted in segmenting visitors into three groups of interest to be targeted in order to reduce seasonality.
 Implications: This study helps the winter and snow tourism stakeholders in Lebanon to reduce tourism seasonality and consequently develop sustainable tourism products. It also enhances previous studies conducted on seasonal tourism demand.
 Limitations: The main limitation is that not all stakeholders were examined. Further research is needed to be conducted on visitors’ decision-making processes and their actual behavior. The proposed segments in this study are subject to future tests and investigations.
 The novelty of the study: With no previous research attempting to analyze seasonal demand in Lebanese ski resorts; this study has a vital role to play in developing sustainable tourism products and helping winter and snow tourism stakeholders to reduce tourism seasonality. The clusters presented at the end of this paper are considered as a new proposition for ski resorts’ managers who are shifting toward all-season operations.

An assessment of the climatic suitability of Afriski Mountain Resort for outdoor tourism using the Tourism Climate Index (TCI)

Tourism Climatic Indices (TCIs) are widely used in the global North to quantify the climatic suitability of a destination for tourism. Only one such study has been conducted in southern Africa to date. It is in a chronic shortage of research on tourism and climate change in the southern hemisphere. This study presents the application of the TCI in Lesotho, calculated for the eastern Lesotho Highlands. The region has an emerging tourism sector, which primarily comprises outdoor activities. These include hiking, horse-riding, music festivals, mountain biking, cultural visits, sightseeing, and at the Afriski lodge, skiing and snowboarding. These activities are reliant on climatic conditions that are conducive to the activity taking place, prolonged periods outdoors, and tourist satisfaction of the activity. Climate is a major determinant of both the length of season for these activities and the timing of peak tourist arrivals. Rising temperatures and changes in relative humidity and precipitation pose real threats to hiking, sightseeing and snow tourism at Afriski. The reliance of tourism in the region on specific climatic conditions for successful tourism prompted the use of the TCI. TCI results classify the eastern Lesotho Highlands as having ‘good’ climatic conditions with an overall TCI score of 64 for the period 2012–2017. Monthly TCI scores for the eastern Lesotho reveal a bimodal-shoulder, meaning the peak climatic conditions are in the regional summer months (December to February). This conflicts with the peak tourist seasons of summer and winter, which align with South African school holidays, and the timing of the most profitable tourism activity (skiing) which occurs during the winter months of June, July and August. Lesotho is landlocked by South Africa. TCI analysis for South Africa reveals more suitable climatic conditions for tourism than Lesotho, with significantly higher scores of 80–89.

Climate change in low mountain ranges: Opportunities in sustainable Black Forest tourism

The aim of this paper is to portray the risks of climate change for low mountain range tourism and to develop sustainable business models as adaption strategy. A mixed-method-approach is applied combining secondary analysis, a quantitative survey, and qualitative in-depth-interviews in a transdisciplinary setting. Results show, that until now, climate change impacts on the snow situation in the Black Forest – at least above 1,000 m – have been mild and compensated by artificial snowmaking, and up to now have not had measurable effects on tourism demand. In general, the Black Forest appears to be an attractive destination for more reasons than just snow. The climate issue seems to be regarded as a rather incidental occurrence with little importance to current business decisions. However, the authors present adaption strategies as alternatives for snow tourism, e. g. the implementation of hiking hostels, since climate change will make winter tourism in the Black Forest impossible in the long run.

El espacio turístico de nieve en España. Perspectiva territorial y revisión tipológica

Las instalaciones para la práctica de deportes de invierno en las montañas españolas han contribuido a producir espacios turísticos asociados a las estaciones de esquí. El presente estudio aborda, a partir de diferentes clasificaciones del espacio turístico de montaña asociado a la práctica de deportes de invierno, una propuesta de clasificación del espacio turístico de nieve en España. Para ello se ha elaborado un inventario de las 33 estaciones pertenecientes a ATUDEM que incluye 28 centros de modalidad alpina y 5 de esquí nórdico. En primer lugar, se ha realizado una revisión bibliográfica, con especial atención a los intentos de clasificación de estos espacios llevados a cabo en el ámbito de los Alpes y también en España. Seguidamente, a partir del inventario extenso de las estaciones españolas y tras elaborar esquemas territoriales de cada caso con el fin de estudiar las relaciones geográficas entre componentes espaciales, se propone una clasificación del espacio turístico de nieve y se describen sus características principales. Las cuatro tipologías posibles son: 1. Espacios complejos polinucleares y polivalentes. Estaciones de esquí asociadas a complejos turísticos. 2. Espacios simples mononucleares y especializados que conforman estaciones aisladas con urbanización turística. 3. Espacios simples mononucleares y especializados que conforman estación aislada más hotel o inmueble de apartamentos turísticos. 4. Espacios simples mononucleares y especializados que conforman estación aislada sin alojamientos en el ámbito inmediato.

Auditing Marketing and the Use of Social Media at Ski Resorts

Mountain and snow tourism are sectors of immense social and economic importance that are developed in an especially sensitive environmental context. A large part of this tourism is channeled through ski resorts. The literature on comparative studies of ski-resort management and, in particular, on marketing management, is limited. This study contributes knowledge on the application of marketing practiced at ski resorts. For the first time, an audit of marketing at ski resorts is performed through a quantitative survey at resorts in two countries (Spain and Italy). The importance–performance analysis (IPA) is used, which identifies both the strong and the weak points and the great deficits of marketing management at ski resorts from the perspective of their directors, to whom the questionnaire was addressed. The social media usage of the ski-stations is also analyzed, identifying different typologies of resorts in accordance with their performance against 11 indicators from Twitter and 15 from Facebook. Knowing the opinion of the visitors, the online and competitive strategy, and adapting to the legislative changes are the aspects to which the directors attach greater importance. The greatest deficits were linked to employee motivation and communication (internal and non-integrated). There are minor differences in Twitter and Facebook indicators between Spanish and Italian ski resorts. The turnover results of the ski resorts present more correlation with Facebook indicators than with Twitter ones. This analysis provides recommendations and implications for the management of ski resorts in the six dimensions of marketing under consideration. It, likewise, offers knowledge of the social-media-related behavior of resorts that are leaders on both Twitter and Facebook, for benchmarking purposes.

The Economic Sustainability of Snow Tourism: The Case of Ski Resorts in Austria, France, and Italy

The purpose of this article is to analyse whether ski resorts in Europe are economically viable. Data originates from the financial statements of the 61 largest ski lift operators in Austria, France, and Italy. Descriptive statistics reveal that these operators are characterized by positive and relatively high returns, and by having little debt in general terms. The results show that the most economically profitable ski operators are also the largest. The elevation of the ski area is not relevant. Ski lift operators in Austria have a higher profitability than those in France and Italy. Overall, larger ski resorts are better prepared for the future investment needed to adapt to the new conditions in the industry, such as climate variability.