$500 billion! Saudi Arabia invests heavily in a new futuristic city, and the Trojena snow town will host the 2029 Asian Winter Games! How many business opportunities are hidden in the super shocking desert snowmaking?
▲
Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming
Editor | Liu Kaiye
As early as October 2022, the Olympic Council of Asia officially announced that Saudi Arabia had successfully won the right to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games. This also marks Saudi Arabia becoming the first West Asian country to host the Asian Winter Games, and will simultaneously kick off preparations for an unprecedented sporting event.
To welcome this grand event, Saudi Arabia plans to build a world-leading winter sports center in its northwestern new city of Neom, which will include miles of ski slopes. This is the famous Trojena winter sports town project!
This "Trojena" project is part of Saudi Arabia's $500 billion "NEOM" megacity development, and this ski resort will be the venue for the 2029 Asian Winter Games.
For those accustomed to skiing in icy and snowy conditions, skiing in the desert seems like an unattainable dream, but Saudi Arabia is working hard to turn this dream into a reality.
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has frequently made significant efforts in the sports sector, successively winning the rights to host the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, 2029 Asian Winter Games, 2034 Asian Games, 2034 FIFA World Cup, and a series of international sporting events. Just last November 28th, Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, announced it had won the bid to host the 2030 World Expo, once again demonstrating its determination for economic transformation to the world.
The Trojena project is located on a mountain at an altitude of 2580 meters, where the temperature is suitable all year round. Even in the hot summer, the temperature here is much lower than in the desert. The annual temperature is 10 degrees lower than the surrounding areas, and winter temperatures can drop below zero.
After the completion of this project, visitors will not only be able to enjoy skiing to their heart's content but also swim freely in the artificial lake, truly realizing the fun of 'ice and fire'.
According to the Saudi government's plan, a ski village, over 3600 hotel rooms, and 2200 luxury residences will be built here to meet the demands of tourists from all over the world. The snow mountain project will undoubtedly become a new tourism highlight for Saudi Arabia.
It can be foreseen that as the construction of the entire NEOM megacity fully unfolds, more and more Chinese enterprises will participate in this great project in the future, and behind it will lie immense business opportunities!
Trojena Winter sports project construction site is bustling with activity: World's first futuristic foldable vertical ski village
As the first outdoor ski resort in the Gulf region's history, Trojena is located in the heart of NEOM, Saudi Arabia's most ambitious megaproject.
The entire project is expected to be completed in 2026, and infrastructure work is currently in full swing. The project will include year-round skiing (3 months of on-snow skiing and year-round artificial dry skiing), retail stores, restaurants, luxury residences, apartments, and luxury hotels, including serviced apartments managed by renowned operators.
Trojena Ski Village, as a crucial component of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's megaproject NEOM, is the first sub-zero ski field and outdoor ski resort in the Gulf region, and will become a year-round adventure sports venue in the future. Designed at an altitude of 2,400 meters and relying on the natural terrain, it combines virtual architectural innovation and technological innovation with reality to create a futuristic world-class ski resort with 6 distinct zones. This unique destination will also feature unique rooftop ski slopes, forming a foldable vertical ski village that integrates multi-functional elements such as hotels, commercial spaces, entertainment venues, sports facilities, and residences, to provide visitors with an extraordinary spatial experience.
It is reported that the design of this iconic ski resort immediately drew widespread admiration upon its unveiling, with Aedas responsible for the architectural design of the ski resort. The design project won the 2024 Design Middle East Awards KSA 2024, with Trojena Ski Village receiving the Best Future Project award.
Trojena is scheduled to open in 2026: with 6 major functional areas reasonably distributed and ingeniously designed.
According to current plans, Trojena will consist of 6 zones, namely the Gateway Zone, Explore Zone, Valley Zone, Expansion Zone, Relax Zone, and Fun Zone. Each zone will also be equipped with a maglev train for convenient transportation.
Upon completion, Trojena will be an outdoor ski resort and the first place in Saudi Arabia where outdoor skiing can be done, with 3 months of skiing available per year, but operating year-round.
According to Ignacio Gomez, Global Design Principal at Aedas: 'In our design, we envisioned a village-scale superstructure where all connections and circulation are vertically distributed across multiple levels.' The multi-level activation of the resort is a fundamental breakthrough in ski village design. In Trojena Ski Village, visitors can easily move between different experiences using a series of passive and active vertical mobility devices, experiencing a vibrant outdoor lifestyle full of surprises and fun.
The unique facade design allows public spaces to have ample natural lighting, while the optimized glass system reduces indoor heat gain, avoids glare, and enhances views.
The entire resort's roof structure not only matches the natural undulations of the mountain but also forms a crucial part of the ski slopes. The total length of the ski slopes is estimated to be approximately 36 kilometers, with the resort's rooftop slopes accounting for 2 kilometers, creating a unique adventure sports destination.
It is reported that Trojena's snowmaking system plans to adopt an integrated dual system consisting of traditional tower snow guns (Fangun) and an all-weather snowmaking system, utilizing 100% renewable energy and a heat recovery system equipped in nearby development projects, driving seawater desalination through renewable energy to maximize water recycling and reuse, while the brine extracted from desalination will also be used for industrial and agricultural value-added product production, avoiding the possibility of re-discharging into the ocean.
The ski resort primarily adopts highly sustainable steel structures, which offer numerous advantages including low loss, high flexibility, off-site manufacturing capability, low time consumption, high resource utilization, strong adaptability, disassemblability, durability, safety, reusability, and recyclability.
In addition to the ski slopes, Trojena features several other remarkable projects, such as the eye-opening 'Dome' vertical village, an artificial freshwater lake for family entertainment and various water activities, a breathtakingly advanced high-tech observatory, and a series of ultra-luxury residences, including apartments, chalets, and hotels.
This design is dedicated to creating energy-efficient buildings that avoid, limit, and mitigate carbon emissions, even achieving carbon offsetting. The building design scheme has undergone rigorous and thorough energy model performance analysis to assess its actual effectiveness. According to industry experts, the project is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification.
Chinese infrastructure companies actively participate in the NEOM project: Chinese companies contribute Chinese solutions and high-quality equipment
In the NEOM project, The Line is a futuristic building with advanced construction. It is not a collection of isolated high-rise buildings in the traditional sense, but rather consists of two parallel, 500-meter-high giant buildings spanning a vast area of 120 kilometers.
China Power Construction, one of the world's leading engineering and construction companies, began its deep involvement in this historic project as early as August 2022. They are responsible for the piling work for the Mirror Line super-high-rise tower foundation.
With its rich experience and excellent technical capabilities, the China Power Construction team has successfully completed numerous complex tasks, including drilling for 1.5-meter and 2.5-meter diameter cast-in-place piles, fabrication and installation of reinforcement cages, and concrete pouring.
Coincidentally, in January 2024, China Railway Construction International Group Co., Ltd. held a grand completion and handover ceremony for the tunnel branch holes at the "THE LINE" project site in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, together with the project owner's supervision. The western packages 1, 2, and 3 tunnels constructed by China Railway Construction have all been completed and handed over, marking a significant breakthrough in the project's key milestones.
In addition to the hard work and expertise of Chinese infrastructure companies at the construction site, the support of high-quality Chinese construction machinery is also indispensable!
To date, Sany Heavy Industry has deployed more than 1672 pieces of equipment at the NEOM project site, covering various types of equipment such as cranes, excavators, loaders, dump trucks, and pump trucks. This equipment works together in different areas and positions to jointly advance this world-class construction project.
In addition, other Chinese companies such as Sungrow Power Supply, Envision Energy, China Construction Group, and SUMEC Group, with their excellent technical strength, rich experience, and outstanding project management capabilities, have provided comprehensive support and services to the NEOM project, setting a new benchmark for green energy transformation and sustainable development in Saudi Arabia and globally, contributing "Chinese wisdom"!
At the same time, these projects have brought huge business opportunities for Chinese companies, showcasing the strength and technological innovation capabilities of Chinese companies on the international stage, further promoting China's leading position in global construction, new energy, and smart cities.
For domestic companies in related fields, Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly a market with huge business opportunities!
With the opening of more direct flights in the future, more and more Chinese tourists will flock to the land of "One Thousand and One Nights," experiencing the unique charm of a snow town in the desert, which is another wonderful experience!
Special Research on Investment in the Tourism Industry
To gain a deeper understanding of the investment and development of the tourism industry, the China Tourism Academy, in conjunction with the China Amusement Park Association and other organizations, is conducting a special research activity on investment in the tourism industry, and sincerely invites all member units and tourism enterprises to participate in the research.
▲Scan the QR code to fill out the questionnaire
