Asia’s hosting of two Winter Olympic Games – 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea and 2022 in Beijing, China – has put the region on the world map for ski holidays, observes Rachael Harding, chief executive officer for East and South Asia & Pacific at Club Med.
In this episode of TTG Conversations: Five Questions, Harding discusses the growing interest in ski holidays, which has led ski business contributing to a third of total business at Club Med, up from just 10 per cent years before. She credits ski sports events for creating a new generation of sports enthusiasts and the emergence of ski sports associations for the spike in winter sports holidays.
She also talks about the importance of Asian source markets, what Japan’s declining domestic demand for snow sports mean to ski resorts in the country, what’s being done to convert travellers new to ski holidays, and how mountain resorts in beautiful locations lend naturally to the sustainable tourism model.
