The number of ski areas in Asia has passed the 1,000 mark for the first time, overtaking the number in North America to make Asia the continent with the second most ski areas in the world.
The figures, provided by research company Snow24, which has been collecting data on ski resorts since 1991, result from a rapid growth in small ski area openings in China over the past few years. More than 100 new ski areas opened there in 2015 alone with the number of Chinese people who tried skiing jumping by nearly a quarter. This growth is expected to increase faster still since China was awarded the 2022 Winter Olympics and both government and commercial interests in the world’s most populous country swing ever more behind developing winter sports.
Most of the remaining ski areas in Asia, which is home to two-thirds of the planet’s population, are in Japan, where skiing boomed in the 1980s and more than 500 ski areas opened. Currently, Snow24 has located 301 ski areas in China and 965 areas for Asia in total, but sources within China say the number of ski areas there may now be more than 550, which puts the total up to 1,229.
Snow24 has records of 840 ski areas currently operating in North America, and the number of areas has gradually declined over the last 20 years with more small centres closing, being no longer economically viable, than opening. The same slow decline is evident in most European ski countries.
North America does still have many more lifts and runs than ski areas in Asia, however, and its ski areas are typically much bigger and better equipped. The same Chinese source that reports more than 550 ski areas in the country also says there are fewer than 1,200 lifts in China.
Snow24’s figures for other continents are: Europe (4,131), South America (42), Australia and New Zealand (39), Africa (12) and Antarctica (1). World total: 6,030 ski areas.
