The first ‘Euro-Asian Ski Resorts Conference, Developing New Destinations for Snow Tourism’, jointly organised by UNWTO and the municipality of Almaty, will be held in Kazakhstan next month.

Winter sports are widely recognised as an important segment in today’s highly relevant domestic and international tourism market.

Nevertheless, says UNWTO, mature snow destinations are increasingly facing the need for investment and product rejuvenation, while newer resorts face challenges of positioning and performance in the global market.

The exchange of best practices and key policy initiatives among mature snow tourism destinations in Europe and developing ski resorts in Asia, will be at the centre the Developing New Destinations for Snow Tourism conference.

The conference will gather major public and private snow tourism stakeholders operating in Europe and Asia, and stimulate cooperation and knowledge exchange to foster sustainable growth and competitiveness for snow tourism destinations.

The event takes place on October 8th-9th at the InterContinental, Almaty, Kazakhstan.

There is more information here.

World Ski Awards

Following the Almaty event, the next destination on the ski tourism calendar is Kitzbühel for the inaugural World Ski Awards.

World Ski Awards is the first ever programme to acknowledge and reward the finest brands in the global ski hospitality industry.

The exclusive awards programme features four blue riband categories: best ski resort, best hotel, best boutique hotel and best chalet.

All winners will be selected from among the top 20 ski nations.

The worldwide voting process will begin at 08:00 on Monday 26th August.

The winners will be announced at the inaugural World Ski Awards Ceremony in Kitzbühel, Austria on November 16th 2013.