Spatial and Temporal Differences of Climate Suitability of Ice and Snow Sports in Major Ski Tourism Destinations in China

Ice and snow tourism in China has grown significantly since the country successfully hosted the Beijing Winter Olympics. Climatic conditions profoundly impact the development of ice and snow tourism; however, most studies have focused on constructing different climate suitability indicators for ice and snow tourism to evaluate individual regions, lacking horizontal comparative studies across multiple regions. This study aims to enrich the connotation of climate suitability for ice and snow sports, establish an evaluation model based on snowfall amount, temperature, and wind speed, and use daily meteorological data from 1991 to 2021 to horizontally compare the climate suitability for ice and snow sports in major ski tourism destinations in China. This study boasts four major findings: 1) the average ice and snow sports climate index of each region decreases over time, and the overall suitability of the climate for ice and snow sports is reducing; 2) northern Xinjiang exhibits the most evident regional differentiation from ‘very suitable’ to ‘generally suitable’; 3) the spatial zoning of climate suitability for ice and snow sports exhibits heterogeneity, as northern Xinjiang is divided into two ‘suitable and above’ zones with rotating empirical orthogonal function (REOF). Correspondingly, the four provinces of Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning are divided into three ‘generally suitable and above’ zones; 4) snowfall amount is the main factor affecting the climate suitability of ice and snow sports in the major ski tourist destinations in China.