J-K: Gulmarg, a winter wonderland for tourists and skiers

Tourists from France, Australia and New Zealand on Friday arrived in Gulmarg for skiing amid the heavy snowfall in the region.

One such tourist, who has come from Sydney, Australia, while sharing his experiences, told ANI that he has visited a lot of places around the world for snowboarding but nothing compares to Gulmarg.

"I've seen plenty of snow slopes in my life and Gulmarg tops them all. I've been to Japan, New Zealand, and Canada. I've done off-track snowboarding in Russia. And nothing compares to Gulmarg. Nothing," Rohan from Sydney, Australia, said.

Further, while praising the hospitality of the Kashmiri people, Rohan said, "The hospitality here is amazing, and they are the kindest people I've ever met. We're staying in a lovely hotel and they're treating us with the utmost respect. The food's amazing too."

Another tourist, Aman, from Sydney, Australia, said, "This is my first time in Kashmir. It's a beautiful place. I love it."

Another tourist who has visited India for the first time said, "This is my first time here in India. What a great place. Really enjoying it. Kashmir. Kashmir. What a great place. Take the trip. Take the trip and come here. It's a good, really good experience."

"We have loads and loads of snow. We're just enjoying it, it's amazing and we are expecting some more snow. So come to Gulmarg and enjoy skiing. It's an amazing sport for physical fitness--for the legs, core and everything else. It's a wonderful sport. I encourage all of you to come and ski," another tourist said.

Another tourist from New Zealand liked Kashmir so much that he's determined to share it with the world through a unique venture, Kashmir's first ski factory.

"Kashmir is a fantastic place. It's got amazing hospitality that you can't beat anywhere else in the world. Probably the one reason to come here is for the locals and for the Kashmiri people, who are just super hospitable and really killer skiers. It's a pretty incredible place to ski. We're looking to set up Kashmir's first ski factory. We want to manufacture skis here. We have a great investor from Kashmir. We're setting up with Kingswood from New Zealand, who will be designing and helping with the manufacture of the skis, which is going to be a great thing for Kashmir. I'm from New Zealand. So I bring tours here through wild snow and have about four partners here, who are just the most generous and lovely people to be in partnership with. So I came this year. I came in November to set up the ski factory. So I've just been working on setting up a ski factory here," a tourist from New Zealand said. (ANI)