Windsurfing makes waves in Turkmenistan
Better known for its inhospitable desert plains than beach breaks, Turkmenistan this month welcomed an unlikely group of visitors: a sun-tanned crop of the world's top windsurfers.
Bordering Iran and Afghanistan, the energy-rich Central Asian country played host to a leg of the windsurfing World Cup at a sparkling new Caspian Sea resort that authorities hope can turn the nation into a water sports hub.
International competitors bobbed and weaved through the foaming surf as their sails glistened in the sweltering heat - an unfamiliar sight in the nation.
"This is such a chance for me!" said a joyous Orazmyrat Arnamammedov, one of only a handful of windsurfers in Turkmenistan.
"It's happiness for me to take part in a competition with sportsmen who are known around the world," the 32-year-old sports instructor said.
Turkmenistan is on a drive to promote itself as a destination for sports, adventure travel and even beach vacations in a bid to boost tourist numbers from the current 15,000 visitors per year.
"Holding world-class windsurfing competitions will be a significant step, taking Turkmenistan to a new level," President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said at the opening of the Turkmenistan PWA World Cup windsurfing event.
Turkmen officials said holding sports championships is part of the government's plan to develop tourism.
Next year the country will host the world championship in belt wrestling - a traditional form of the sport - in November and the 2017 5th Asian Indoor-Martial Arts Games.
"Sports and travel are the new trend for international tourism in Turkmenistan," said an official at the state tourism committee who asked not to be named.
The sprawling Caspian Sea town of Avaza, which hosted the windsurfing competition from its 16 km of beach, is a key part of that plan.
By 2020 Ashgabat hopes to transform the desert resort, whose name means "singing wave" in Turkmen, into a vast complex that can compete with Turkey's huge southwestern sea resort of Antalya.
"Avaza has every chance of becoming a major attraction for tourists, both from neighboring countries and also from overseas," Berdymukhamedov said recently.
"In this part of the Caspian, the water is exceptionally clean and there are good beaches and a mild climate."
Since work started in 2007, six hotels and other accommodation for some 7,000 visitors have been built mainly by Turkish firms at a cost of around $2 billion.
But the resort - where US pop star Jennifer Lopez was jetted in to perform last summer - is set to grow into a vast complex with at least 60 hotels, as well as sanatoriums, rest homes, cottages and camp sites, that the state tourism committee boasts will be "up to world standards".
An artificial river runs through the town, and a new airport has been opened in the nearby city of Turkmenbashi.
(China Daily 07/16/2014 page10)
