The future of the winter sports market in Asia

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The growing sales figures, the greater international participation, and the new topics of the Asia Pacific Snow Conference all speak for the increasing central importance of the event location of Alpitec China within the international winter sports industry.

In recent years, Alpitec China has positioned itself as the only B2B meeting place in China for the mountain and winter technologies sector, and along with ISPO BEIJING, the tradeshow organized by the Munich International Trade Fairs centering on sports, fashion, and lifestyle brands for winter sports, it will take place from February 27 to March 2, 2013 at the exhibition center of the China National Convention Center (CNCC) in Beijing.

While Europe and the USA, with annual cutbacks and decreasing numbers of winter sports fans, have to deal with a decline, the Chinese boom has not yet even been reached. In China, the ski industry is one of the newest markets, and it is being buoyed as a result of the expansion of the leisure time industry and the increasing market potential of a constantly growing Chinese middle class of over 100 million citizens. The China Ski Association, or CSA, is predicting continued positive growth, with up to twenty million skiers by 2014.

Long-term development in China therefore continues to be promising, as the successful figures from the last Alpitec China in 2012 and the current course of the preparations for the fifth edition of the International Tradeshow for Mountain and Winter Technologies both demonstrate. In 2012, more than 24, 500 visitors from the sector obtained an overview of the innovations and trends in the sector, and 98% of them are also planning to attend Alpitec China once again in 2013, while a total of 353 exhibitors participated last year in ISPO BEIJING and Alpitec China on an exhibition floor space of 34,000 square meters (366, 000 square feet). For 2013, sales figures thus far promise additional growth in the panorama of exhibitors, and within that context, it is above all else an increasing trend in internationalization that is indicated: European representatives in the sector are increasingly taking part in the tradeshow, especially with collective stands, including from Austria. France, and Scandinavia, which confirms the successful location of the event in Beijing, in the heart of the dynamic People's Republic of China as the international platform in Asia.

For the first time, the more than two hundred existing ski areas in China will be offered a unique presentation space, the "Skiresort Area", which will give them the opportunity to increase the quality of their facilities and services through workshops and practice-related information events in an exchange with the know-how from the traditional alpine winter regions.

Since 2009, the product show by the exhibitors of Alpitec China has been accompanied by the international conference, the Asia Pacific Snow Conference, which will take place this year on the second day of the tradeshow, Thursday, February 28. From its very beginning, the APSC has enjoyed a growing number of participants, as every year it tackles current topics and discussions on winter sports, tourism, and the winter industry in China. It will include primarily presentations on the "hardware" in winter tourism and the ski industry, such as investment, strategies for tourism, the design of infrastructures, and resort management. But subjects concerning quality management in ski areas are also increasingly enjoying great popularity. The main focus of this year's edition will be the topic of ski runs and ski lift facilities and the corresponding measures along the lines of customer satisfaction and responsibility with respect to visitors to the ski areas. In addition, through the use of a series of presentations, the experiences from Europe and the USA will be conveyed, in order to also prevent, through the analysis of errant courses of planning or action in recent years, a decline in customers in a market such as China that is still capable of further growth.

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