International delegates have inspected potential locations for hosting the Freeride World Tour, a series of sporting events for freeskiers and snowboard freeriders, in Georgia, the country’s Mountain Trails Agency said on Tuesday.

Irakli Burchuladze, the Director of the country’s Mountain Trails Agency, said hosting the tournament broadcast to 300 million viewers would be “very important” for the development of winter sports and tourism of Georgia, and noted the country would “once again be marked on the world map”, raising awareness on an international scale.

Photo via Mountain Trails Agency

Nicolas Hale-Woods, the founder of Freeride World Tour, said his office was “in cooperation with the hospitable Georgian host team to inspect the mountain and assess its potential before the upcoming Freeride World Tour competition”.

Photo via Mountain Trails Agency

Georgia offers fantastic mountains with very good snow. And now, we have discovered extraordinary hospitality. We hope to be able to announce that Georgia will join the big family of the Freeride World Tour”, he added.

The MTA said the final decision on hosting the series in Georgia would be announced at the annual event of the series in Annecy, France, at the end of the month.

Georgia’s winter resort of Tetnuldi in the north-western Svaneti region twice hosted qualifying stages of the series, featuring 120 athletes from 20 countries.

The Agency said the “successful hosting” of events had attracted the attention of international specialists and create the possibility of including Georgia among host countries.