First Genting Resort Secret Garden International Ski Resort Forum: Highlights, Celebrities and Insights 

On March 2, Genting Banquet Hall gathered a number of guests who came from the Atout France, the tourism authority and 12 ski resorts of Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of France, the Switzerland Tourism, the Italian National Tourism Agency, the Finnish Tourist Board, the National Tourism Organisation of Serbia, the Catalonia Tourism Office of Spain, the Gunma Prefectural Government of Japan, Prince Hotels of Japan, the Andorra Tourist Office and Grandvalira Ski Resort of Andorra, the Davos and Arosa Tourism Administrations of Switzerland, the Austrian Salzburg Tourist Administration, Zugspitze of Germany, New Zealand Airlines and other tourist agencies. There were also representatives from world-renowned ski resorts, ski agencies, hotel groups; heads of domestic and foreign travel agencies, ski club; and China.com.cn, Zhibo.tv, CCTV, Huaxuezoo.com, SKI+ app (Huabei) and other media. The event also received great support from the Croatian Embassy and the Lithuanian Embassy in China.

In a word, it was a really top-level event! The forum presented a number of hot topics and the following is a review of this grand occasion in the global ski business.

New Opportunities for the Winter Olympics and Efforts in Sustainable Development

The theme of the forum was “New Opportunities for the Winter Olympics and Efforts in Sustainable Development”. Together with the forum, Genting also held two summit dialogues, a friendly cooperation ceremony for the host and guests, a PGS Experience Day event for about 100 national clubs, and an International Ski Resort Forum Banquet and other activities.

Before the official opening of the forum, 12 ski resorts from the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of France, the Grandvalira Ski Resort in Andorra, the Oze Iwakura Resort in Gunma Japan, Japanese Prince Hotels (its 9 ski resorts), Zugspitze of Germany, and New Zealand Airlines, carried out preliminary promotion of their ski resorts in the booths in advance.

Following that, Mr. Benno Nager, Chief Operating Officer of the forum’s host Genting Secret Garden, delivered an opening speech and officially kicked off the forum.

Mr. Benno Nager, Chief Operating Officer of Genting Secret Garden was delivering a speech.

Mr. Lionel Flasseur, General Manager of the Tourism Authority of Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of France was delivering a speech.

Themed “New Opportunities for the Winter Olympics and Efforts in Sustainable Development”, the forum held two high-level dialogues successively.

The first round of the summit dialogue focused on the "New Opportunities Brought by Winter Olympics". It was presided over Mr. Qiang Wei, the official advisor to the 2008 Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee, former CEO of the Fuxing Sports industrial sector, and former CEO of the Toread Group, and the dialogue, full of insightful opinions, was participated in by a high-end group of dignitaries including representatives from skiing and tourism agencies in France, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy, Finland and heads of Genting Secret Garden.

On the topic of “Opportunities and Challenges of Ski Tour Market in China”, Boomski Co-founder Mr. Li Dazhi, as the guest moderator, discussed with six guests from the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of France, the Davos and Arosa Tourism Administrations of Switzerland, the Shanghai Representative Office of Prince Hotels of Japan, the Andorra Tourist Office, Zugspitze of Germany and Genting Snor Park.

All the ski resort representatives of the guest country of honor showed up to officially unveil the China-French Friendly Ski Resort Forum

As the guest of honor of this forum, France sent a high-level delegation, including Mr. Lionel Flasseur, General Manager of the Tourism Authority of Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of France, and personnel from 12 world’s top ski resorts in the country such as Les Trois Vallées, Mont Blanc, and Ski Paradise.

As the host country of the first Winter Olympics, France has hosted 3 rounds of the Winter Olympics, and all the games were held in the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes of eastern France.

The region is a gathering base of hundreds of ski resorts and also a world's top-end ski complex in terms of its snow, cable cars, mountains and other hardware, as well as its accommodation capacity for skiing tourists.

This forum officially unveiled the China-French Friendly Ski Resort Forum cooperation ceremony for the purpose of laying a solid foundation, in the fields of competitive sports and ski tourism, for the extensive, sustained and in-depth cooperation between ski resorts of both countries,

At the venue of the Winter Olympics, they would definitely experience the Winter Olympic atmosphere in advance. In the event entitled “Genting Winter Olympic Pistes Experience Day for 100 National Clubs” held in the afternoon, nationwide club leaders came to join the sports and experience in advance the PGS track of the Winter Olympics.

The experience event was guided by Mr. Freddie Bacon, Headmaster of Genting Secret Garden Ski School and Mr. Gregory Guzzo, General Manager for Marketing of the French Alps Resort. They formed a spectacular scene where over 100 persons skied along the Winter Olympic tracks.

Upon completion of the discussions at the forum and the exciting sports experience on the track, another occasion followed: the International Ski Resort Banquet Dinner which highlighted lottery awards to tour around the world famous snow ski resorts. Over a long time, competitive sports have developed toward the goal of becoming higher, faster and stronger. This forum explored the opportunities and challenges brought by winter sports events and started dialogues on the sustainable development of Chinese and foreign ski resorts. By doing so, it showed us multiple possibilities for the future development of the ski business.

It’s our belief that with the support of so many excellent skiers and ski business professionals, China's snow and ice sports and skiing vacation sector will advance in a wider, more extensive and optimized manner.