A small indoor snow centre has opened in Indonesia, with snow provided by one of the world’s leading manufacturers of conventional snowmaking systems, TechnoAlpin.

The Italian company also makes ‘all-weather’ machines for use at outdoor areas where natural snow cover can’t be guaranteed and three of these SnowFactory machines are in use at the new Trans Snow World Surabaya.

Trans Snow World Surabaya is located in the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java, which is also the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. In the 2020 census it had a population of 9.5 million in its metropolitan area.

The centre, which opened on 5th August, has 3,000 m² of indoor snow and offers downhill skiing including rentals and tuition, toboganning and tubing. There is also a chairlift

The snow centre is the third for Trans Snow World which also runs Trans Snow World in Bintaro, South Jakarta and Bekasi in West Java as well as other leisure and entertainment businesses.

The third centre takes Indonesia from being in joint 10th position for number of indoor snow centres in the world with eight other countries to joint 8th position with Malaysia behind China (36), India (10), Finland (8), Netherlands (7), UK and Germany (both 6) and Japan (4).

Indonesia has a history of indoor snow skiing stretching back more than 25 years, although with a nearly two-decade gap. Waterfront City was a small centre that operated in Batam between 1996 and 2000. Located 23km south of Singapore. Indoor skiing and boarding was just part of this huge shopping and leisure complex where you could also go karting, bungee jumping, jet-skiing, paintballing, horse riding, try all terrain vehicles, the catapult or play on an 18 hole golf course. There’s was a giant freeform swimming pool, snooker room, karaoke lounge, squash courts, video arcade, discotheque, tennis court, table tennis, ten lane bowling alley, marina, archery, massage centre and bikes.

Phase 2 of Waterfront City’s ski area, which would have been one of the biggest indoor snow centres at the time at 250m long, 50m wide was built in 1997 but never fitted out. The ski slope closed due to recession and riots in Indonesia at the time and the building was then destroyed in an accidental fire. It was nearly two decades before indoor snow centres began to re-open there.

There are currently believed to be at least 115 indoor snow centres operating in 33 countries on all continents except Antarctica. That is more than currently open outdoor ski areas worldwide although not all of the indoor centres offer skiing and boarding.