Asian Winter Games Gives Lift to Host City Harbin, China — But It Was Already Rising
Photo Credit: Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival is an annual winter festival in Harbin, China. It is the world largest ice and snow festival. Adobe Stock / kikujungboy
Skift Take
Harbin's success at the 2025 Asian Winter Games highlights its already booming winter tourism, but the city's next challenge will be maintaining its momentum.
It was the largest Asian Winter Games yet with a record 1,275 athletes from 34 countries and regions participating.
For the host city Harbin, China, it meant a more than 30% increase in the number of inbound tourism orders compared to the same period last year, according to Tongcheng Travel, a popular Chinese online travel agency.
But Harbin’s popularity was well under way before the Games even began.
It experienced a domestic tourism boom in 2023, driven by increased visibility on social media platforms, according to Xinhua News Agency, the official state news outlet. Posts across Chinese social platforms and Instagram featured the city’s ice castles and four-hour queues for ice slides at the Ice and Snow World. The theme park alone generated over 1 billion views and tens of thousands of posts on Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
Other travel vloggers and visitors shared skiing guides and livestreams from Harbin’s Yabuli Ski Resort, China’s larg
