The Market Responses of Ice and Snow Destinations to Southerners’ Tourism Willingness: A Case Study from China

Abstract

Since the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, China has been promoting ice and snow tourism, mainly to domestic tourists from southern China. Thus, ice–snow tourism operators in the north need to know what Southerners want. Respondents from south of the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province were administered a questionnaire about candidate national parks in Inner Mongolia as tourism destinations. A qualitative method based on picture material was used to summarize the categories of ice–snow tourism activities. Based on questionnaire data by OLS (ordinary least squares) and quantile regression, respectively, this study identified the average and differential (by the difference of respondents’ willingness level) inducing effects of different tourism activities on Southerners’ ice–snow tourism willingness. With the supply–demand comparing method, the impacts of the tourism activity availability on the fulfillment of Southerners’ ice–snow tourism desire were revealed. For formulating sound market positioning to expand the southern market, suggestions for promoting the preferred activities and complementing the supply shortage were put forth based on Southerners’ willingness. The results provide meaningful lessons for developing, operating, and marketing ice–snow tourism destinations in the north in response to Southerners’ willingness to travel.