The impact of Winter Olympic Games on the development of ice and snow tourism destinations

Competition tourism constitutes a crucial aspect in the construction of the modern tourism industry system. To analyze the influence of hosting Winter Olympics Games on the flow and quality of ice and snow tourism destinations, based on the exogenous shock event of the successful bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics, this paper takes 54 cities along the premium quality ice and snow tourism routes and their surrounding areas in six northern provinces and municipalities from 2011 to 2021 as the research objects. Then, by utilizing a double machine learning model, it explores the impact effect of hosting Winter Olympic Games on the development of ice and snow tourism destinations. The results reveal that: (1) The hosting of Winter Olympics Games can significantly enhance the “flow” and “quality” levels of ice and snow tourism destinations. Meanwhile, this conclusion has passed robustness tests such as sample tail-trimming processing, adjustment of fixed effects, and changes in machine learning methods. (2) The hosting of Winter Olympics Games mainly improves the development quality of tourism destination cities by enhancing the types of ice and snow tourism products and the vitality of tourism development. Moreover, the increase in online attention to ice and snow tourism can significantly drive the development quality of tourism. Promoting the “quality” improvement through “flow” is an important approach for the sustainable development of ice and snow tourism in the future. (3) The results of the heterogeneity test indicate that the hosting of Winter Olympics Games has a stronger effect on the tourism development quality of ice and snow tourism cities with higher levels of digitalization and marketization. This paper offers beneficial references for enhancing the “flow” and “quality” of ice and snow tourism destinations, exploring the development models of ice and snow tourism cities, and promoting the high-quality development of ice and snow tourism.