*13 foreign teams participate in ‘Expedition India-2017’
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 13: In a first of its kind event, Kashmir hosted an international adventure race ‘Expedition India-2017’ being organized by Johannesburg based adventure company Kinetic Events in collaboration with Department of Tourism and J&K Bank.
The Minister of State for Tourism, Priya Sethi welcomed the guests during the opening ceremony held here at SKICC, while as the first leg of the downhill race was flagged off jointly by Commissioner Secretary Tourism, MH Malik and Chairman J&K Bank, Parvez Ahmad here at Shankaracharya temple hill in presence of Director Tourism Kashmir, Mahmood A Shah, Deputy Directors of Tourism Riyaz Ahmad Beigh and Peerzada Zahoor.
Around 14 teams including 13 foreign teams and a local team is participating in the event.
On the occasion, Priya Sethi said Jammu and Kashmir is blessed with diverse culture and natural beauty and the travellers from all over the world should visit here. She said the Department would organize more such events in the future to attract more foreign travellers to the State.
She further said it was very encouraging that foreigners from different countries visited this place for an international event despite travel advisories.
“This shows that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is safe for travelling and the tourists here are feeling safe,” she added.
Commissioner Secretary Tourism, M H Malik also complimented the foreign teams on choosing Kashmir and Ladakh for this mega event. He said that the State is a complete package for travellers in terms of different types of tourism.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman J&K Bank said the Bank understands its role well and has always acted as a catalyst for the various sectors of the economy. He said the bank aims to promote youth entrepreneurship in tourism.
Director Tourism Kashmir said the inflow of foreign tourists had gone down, however due to such events we want to remove the negative perception among the travellers around the world.
The biggest handicap to Kashmir tourism is the negative publicity, but such expeditions which have a maximum participation from the foreign countries will help us increase foreign influx, he added.
Owners of the Kinetic Events and the organizers Stephan Mulle and Heidi Mulle said though many countries have issued advisories against travelling Kashmir, they found nothing bad here.
On the first day today, the teams ran downhill from Shankaracharya temple to Nehru Park Ghat where they rowed the shikrara to SKICC.
In the evening, the teams will move to Sonamarg where they will do hiking before moving to Leh. The race will culminate at Nobra valley in Leh on September 22, 2017.
Each team has been equipped with GPS system which is tracking their race.
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