Austria looks forward to further winter sports cooperation

Michael Berger, commercial counselor at the Austrian embassy, speaks at a news briefing in Beijing on Feb 20, 2022. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Austria's winter sports industry is optimistic it will increase its cooperation with China as the country will continue to develop its facilities in this sector after the Winter Olympic Games, Michael Berger, commercial counselor at the Austrian embassy, said on Sunday.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games have raised general awareness in the Chinese public for ice and snow sports. The more Chinese people want to try these sports, the more equipment and venues they will require, and this will provide Austrian companies many business opportunities, he added.

Xu Yisheng, general manager of Axess (Beijing) Technology Co Ltd, said the Chinese market now only accounts for 3 to 4 percent of his company's whole business. But he said he believed as more Chinese people get into skiing after their first try, the winter sports market in China will get larger and more standardized after rapid development in recent years. The Salzburg-based company develops ticketing systems and access management for many scenarios including ski resorts, water and theme parks.

Austria's Doppelmayr, who manufactures ropeways, cable cars and ski lifts, also agreed there is huge potential in expanding the Chinese market, given the increasing popularity of skiing in the country. Li Yanqiu, general manager of Doppelmayr China, said that the company will optimize its system to make their equipment more affordable and efficient.

In the last four years, more than 200 million euros' ($227.24 million) worth of winter sports exports have been made from Austria to China. "This is not only for the Olympics, but also for new ski stations in the area," Berger said.

Among all the products and services Austria exported to China, machinery and technical articles have occupied a large share, while winter sports items accounted for only a small part. Berger said he looked forward to further increases in this sector.

The construction of indoor ski and skating areas in southern China and ski resorts in Northeast and Northwest China presents opportunities for Austrian companies, Berger said. According to estimates by the Austrian ski industry, in the future 300 to 400 thousand pairs of skis will be sold in China every year.

Head, another Austrian sporting company, said it believes there are huge opportunities for Austrian enterprises in China, as "there is a good business environment, a more efficient supply chain support and sufficient talents".

"With the increase of China's GDP and personal disposable income, more and more people have begun to focus on different sports, skiing is just one of them," according to Head. "The biggest challenge may come from the speed of China's development. In order to keep up with such business changes, we need to do more localized deployments," the company added.

Compared with 2020, Berger saw general trade figures between China and Austria rebound last year. "China is our most important trading partner in Asia, and is our second-biggest source of imports after Germany."

Still, due to the pandemic, it's hard for newcomers to tap into the Chinese market, Berger admitted.

Though video conferences and webinars bring new Austrian companies the attention of Chinese customers and there is interest in their products, "they (Chinese customers) don't buy if they don't meet personally. They want to go there, they want to be in a trade fair, they want to see their equipment, they want to have the details, only then do they want to establish a commercial relationship based on mutual trust and respect," Berger said. "This is hindered by the pandemic."