This article first appeared in Harper’s Bazaar Singapore, the leading fashion glossy on the best of style, beauty, design, travel and the arts. Go to harpersbazaar.com.sg and follow harpersbazaarsingapore on Facebook and harpersbazaarsg on Instagram and TikTok. The March 2025 issue is out on newsstands now.

A moment of calm envelops you, as it always does at the top of the hill. After all, you are thousands of kilometres away from your work e-mail and the terrain around you is a blanket of white.

Your goggles catch the gleaming sun rays and you push yourself off the top of the slope, and just like that, calm turns into adrenaline as you navigate the mountainside with your skis and plenty of verve.

For a group of tourists each year, this is the feeling that they chase. Whether they are snowboarding, skiing or snowshoeing, it is the act of getting physical amid a wintery landscape that calls them back. And according to strategists and industry observers, it is also a group that is growing faster and bigger every year.

“Since the pandemic, there has been a remarkable surge in the number of people signing up for ski holidays,” says Mr Wong Yew Hoong, director of local tour operator EU Holidays.

He also notes a broader shift in travel preferences towards skiing and snowboarding abroad, particularly after the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Mr Geoff Buchheister, chief executive of Aspen Snowmass – a company that oversees four of Aspen, Colorado’s mountains that span more than 2,300ha of snow terrain – says: “We’re witnessing a diversity of new participants of all ages discovering the sport for the first time.”

Beyond the yearning for thrills, there is an aspirational aspect to snowsports, says Ms Mimi Lu, head of strategy, media AP...