Chinese tourists love to pay to have snow cleared

For 250,000 yen (US$1,600), tourists can ride in a specialized snowplow and participate in the snow-clearing process in Sapporo, Japan.

Sapporo, Japan, is one of the most popular destinations for Chinese tourists. (Source: Voyapon)

Some travel companies and hotels in Japan have expanded their tourism services by offering snow shoveling tours, a recent unique tourist attraction for foreign visitors.

During the seven-day Lunar New Year holiday, mainland China recorded 7.7 million entries and exits.

Among overseas travel destinations, Japan emerged as one of the top international destinations for Chinese tourists, with the number doubling compared to last year's Lunar New Year holiday, according to Xinhua News Agency .

Besides the purpose of traveling or shopping, a unique activity that has recently emerged in the travel community of the billion-people country is participating in snow shoveling tours.

Tourists experience shoveling snow in Sapporo. (Source: QQ.com)

Decoding the above trend, Japanese media TBS Television said that Tobu Top Tours - a local travel company in Sapporo City, Hokkaido Province, Northern Japan, has promoted snow shoveling tours as a local specialty.

Sapporo, home to two million residents, is famous for being one of the snowiest cities in the world , where temperatures are below freezing for a third of the year and averages several metres of snowfall each winter.

The tour offered by Tobu Top Tours provides customers with the rare opportunity to ride in a specialized snowplow and participate in the snow removal process.

This experience takes place from January to early March, costing 250,000 Yen (US$1,600) for 1-6 people.

On Chinese social media platform RedNote, some inns in Hokkaido have also started offering snow removal services to attract customers.

Tourists expressed their delight at being able to shovel snow directly during their visit to northern Japan.

Illuminated snow sculptures are displayed during the Sapporo Snow Festival at Odori Park in Hokkaido. (Source: Kyodo)

Many Chinese tourists have shared their first snow shoveling experiences in Japan on RedNote. The posts also highlight the new trend among young Chinese tourists to prioritize adventure over shopping.

Given the above trend, many people are surprised that this labor-intensive job, which often makes local people feel bored, has become a highly profitable tourism activity for the land of cherry blossoms.

A Japanese observer commented on X: "The person who first came up with this idea was a genius."

Another said: “The experience of shoveling snow is completely different from getting paid to clear snow, it is a task that requires doing it properly.”

In contrast to the Chinese tourists who eagerly joined the tour, or who considered it an interesting experience, some of their compatriots commented that these tourists were “silly”.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/du-lich-nhat-ban-khach-trung-quoc-thich-thu-bo-tien-de-duoc-don-tuyet-304928.html