WATCH: Ski festival in Kurdistan's Choman mountains attracts foreign tourists

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – People across the world, including the United States and Europe, participated in the annual skiing festival in the Choman mountains of the Kurdistan Region on Saturday.

According to a Kurdistan 24 correspondent at the event, 11 Kurdish skiers and nine others representing the US and other European countries participated in the festival.

The participants had received training and instructions several days before the 2018 festival took place, the correspondent said.

The town of Choman, on the border with Iran, is located 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Erbil.

The town has many facilities such as resorts, parks, rivers, vast meadows, and waterfalls intended for tourists, especially in the spring and summer.  

Kurdistan’s first skiing festival was organized in 2014 in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, as tourists from neighboring countries as well as abroad took part.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) seeks to develop many sectors, including its tourism division, especially in the winter where the mountains retain snow.

The Kurdistan Region, an oasis of calm and stability, has seen its tourism sector severely affected since the war with the Islamic State (IS) began.

The KRG’s Tourism Authority has tried to compensate after an agreement with private companies to transport tourists from other cities in Iraq to participate in exhibitions, sporting events, and entertainment festivals in Kurdistan.