Ms Legnavsky told the Otago Daily Times before she left yesterday she expected to recruit at least 10 "Mandarin-fluent'' staff as ski and snowboard instructors and as hosts.
"What we are trying to do is increase the Chinese market.
"We feel strongly that we need Chinese employees to help us do that, especially while we are starting to understand them.''
While the number of Chinese skiers coming to Cardrona is not known, there are plenty of anecdotal reports numbers are growing rapidly.
Teaching Chinese skiers required instructors who were "reasonably fluent'' in Mandarin.
She and two other Cardrona staff planned to visit three ski resorts, including Nanshan near Beijing and Wanlong further north, where an instructor training base would be set up.
Cardrona staff would be used to train the Mandarin-speaking Chinese staff as instructors "to the level that we know that we can use them for work in New Zealand''.
Chinese people were quite new to the sport, so there was going to be "quite a lot of upskilling'' in China, followed by more training at Cardrona, she said.
There was also a need for Mandarin speaking hosts and guides at Cardrona through both the summer and winter seasons.
"We're expecting to see a lot more Chinese sightseers in summer.''
"The whole thing is about upskilling the Chinese-speaking staff so that they can become part of the Cardrona team.''
There would also be chances for Cardrona staff to learn Mandarin and work at Chinese skifields, Ms Legnavsky said.
A big part of Cardrona's long-term plan was "connecting'' with Chinese skifields and getting to know and understand the market.
