KARACHI: Pakistan’s mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan region will host its first formal winter sports festival from December this year to attract foreign visitors and showcase the country’s tourism potential, a top government official said, adding that athletes from Germany and Canada had already confirmed participation.
Gilgit-Baltistan is home to the Himalayas and the world’s second highest mountain K2. In 2018, it was listed by Forbes among the 10 “coolest places” to visit. The region’s economy is largely dependent on tourism and was severely hit last year as outbreaks of COVID-19 and travel curbs deterred tourists from flocking to the area’s glacial lakes, valleys and 8,000-meter-plus peaks.
This year, the government is banking on the arrival of a large number of domestic and international tourists on account of fewer coronavirus infections and the loosening of local travel restrictions as well as visas on arrival for 65 nationalities.
As a “sort of advertisement” for what is planned this winter, an informal winter festival was held last year “to introduce the potential of our winter sports to the world,” Raja Nasir Ali Khan, the minister of tourism and sports for Gilgit-Baltistan, told Arab News in an interview. “The informal events were attended by thousands.”
Khan said this year’s festival, which will kick off in December and go on until March 2022, would attract “hundreds of thousands of people.”
Ice hockey, ice football, snowboarding, alpine skiing, downhill skiing, ski jumping, river rafting, and a cold desert rally are some of the major sports events to be held during the festival.
Khan said a Canadian team had been invited to guide the tourism department on how to execute the festival and he had personally talked to the Canadian High Commission to provide “relevant equipment and training and display their activities.”
“Canadian have also assured us that they will support us in the winter sports activities,” he said. “They will be participating for the first time in Pakistan’s winter sports.”
The Canadian High Commission did not respond to repeated requests for comment by the time of filing.
Athletes from Germany would also participate in the festival, Khan said, while Austria and other countries had also been approached and their confirmation was awaited.
Khan said he hoped the winter season would be better than the summer months when many prominent events and hundreds of group expedition bookings had to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This year the events could not take place in summer due to COVID-19,”’ he said, naming a few prominent canceled events, including the Deosai marathon, Rama polo festival, Shandur polo festival, and a cold desert rally.
