Eight examples of pursuing high-quality tourism development in Jilin—Vanke Songhua Lake Resort

Editor’s note:

Jilin province has been pursuing high-quality tourism development in recent years, aiming to make tourism a new pillar and driving force for its economic growth. The segments it is particularly ambitious in are eco tour and ice and snow tour with a goal to become a world-class destination for such tours. Meanwhile, it is also vigorously developing summer tour and border tour. Against this background, the province called a conference in Changchun on May 22 where eight case studies offered fresh, inspiring insight into how high-quality tourism growth could be achieved in the province. We will introduce the eight cases one by one. The case for today is Vanke Songhua Lake Resort.

Vanke Songhua Lake Resort marked Vanke’s foray into the mountain resort business. As a leading skiing-themed project in China, the resort has been a trail-blazer in the ice and snow industry.

China’s ice and snow industry is growing on a fast track. Against this background, the resort, which opened in 2015, has seen its business increase year by year. In the snow season between 2017 and 2018, tourist arrivals reached 469,000, up 37 percent year on year.

Zhao Lanju, general manager of the resort, shared the experience of the resort carving out a place in the ice and snow business at the meeting.

The resort already set a goal to become the most attractive ice and snow resort in north China when it was initially planned and constructed.

With a planned area of 20 square kilometers, the resort has seen a total investment of over four billion yuan so far. Surrounding ice and snow sports and mountain resort services, the project is a multi-functional destination that also offers services like pre-match training, outdoor activities, hotels and restaurants, exhibition, shopping, education, leisure, entertainment and resort property.

Its ski resort has 6 imported high-speed cable cars, seven magic carpets, and 34 quality trails that together measure 31 kilometers. With a skiing area of 175 hectares, the resort has its biggest elevation difference measured at 605 meters. It can accommodate 8,000 skiers and its cable cars and magic carpets can carry 22,000 people per hour.

In order to optimize user experience, the resort tailors its products to the diversified needs of resort-goers. The areas involved in this regard include skiing ticket, hotels, matches, restaurants, teaching and winter camps.

For beginners and those who just want to experience skiing, the resort has a 50,000-square-meter ski area with products like affordable one-day trips.

To encourage teenagers and children to learn skiing, the resort has come up with a number of initiatives, including winter skiing camps, experience programs for grade and secondary school students and free admission for children skiers every Wednesday. In the 2017-2018 snow season, the resort received some 50,000 children, representing a year on year increase of 60 percent.

The resort also takes advantage of the Internet to offer easier services for resort-goers. For example, it launched sales services and membership services on WeChat during the 2017-2018 snow season. To be specific, there are cards that integrate accommodation and skiing services, a pre-sale online marketplace and membership-based bonus points.

As a strategic focus of Jilin province’s ice and snow industry, the resort also organzes a series of matches and themed activities to enrich user experiences. In cooperation with the national sports administration and tourism and sports authorities of Jilin, the resort has staged many festivals and events featuring ice and snow to encourage common people to take part in.

In early March, Jilin and Beijing signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation in the ice and snow industry. Under the agreement, Jilin and Beijing will jointly deepen research on ice and snow sports, matches, equipment, human resources and tourism in order to advance their ice and snow sports and industries.

With ski resorts in both Beijing and Jilin, Vanke will have a role to play in strengthening the ties of the two provincial regions in developing the ice and snow industry and cultivating sports event IP.