The World Winter Sports (Beijing) Expo 2017 opened Thursday with several agreements between institutions and enterprises from China and Switzerland.

The Chinese Ski Association and Swiss Ski Association signed memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of winter sports and Olympic Games; Yanqing District in northwest Beijing and renowned holiday resort St Moritz, Graubünden, in Switzerland, signed deals on friendship and exchange; Alibaba’s travel platform Fliggy signed a contract with Switzerland Tourism to provide a selection of travel products from Switzerland on their platform.

Over 30 local travel bureaus, organizations, enterprises, brands, and companies renowned for winter-sports products from Switzerland showcased their best at this Expo in Beijing thanks to the effort from Switzerland Tourism, Embassy of Switzerland in China and Switzerland Global Enterprise.

These moves showed the two countries' joint devotion in promoting winter sports and tourism.

After Chinese President Xi Jinping and President of the Swiss Confederation Doris Leuthard announced 2017 Sino-Swiss Year of Tourism in January, many collaborative campaigns have been carried carried out between the two countries.

Most Chinese people are not familiar with winter sports as much as people in Europe or North America. But when bidding for Winter Olympics 2022, the bidding committee set a goal, "get 300 million Chinese people on the snow and ice" by 2022, which means to get more Chinese into winter sports. 

Known as the “Home of Snow Sports,” Switzerland’s expertise in technology and infrastructure of winter sports will surely help Beijing host the upcoming Winter Olympics.

“A global leader in sustainable winter sports tourism, we are also a prominent leader in providing green commercial solutions, with which China is facing many challenges. While we are attracting more and more Chinese tourists to our country, we are also aiming for long-term collaboration with China,” Ambassador of Switzerland to China Jean-Jacques de Dardel told the media at the press conference on Thursday.

Rise along with the number of collaborations is Chinese tourists’ interests in visiting Switzerland and experiencing its prestigious winter tourism resorts.

According to the research result provided by Switzerland Tourism, Chinese tourists that spent nights in Swiss hotels reached 1.5 million in 2015, rose by 33 percent compared to 2014.

Many Swiss resorts also provide products like the “first experience of skiing” and even Chinese-speaking instructors in 2016/17 winter season, which has already got quite a lot of attention from Chinese visitors.

Research also shows that not all Chinese visitors visit Switzerland in winter for sports, many of whom focus more on the experience and scenery of winter in Switzerland.

“For Switzerland, China has already become the fourth strongest foreign source market”, explained Urs Eberhard, Executive Vice President of Switzerland Tourism.

“But China is not only on the move in terms of absolute figures. We observe that our Chinese customers more and more tend to travel as individual guests.”