Rize heliskiing event called off this year

RİZE - Doğan News Agency

The organization brings hundreds of sportsmen to the Black Sea region. DHA photo

Heliskiing trips, which have been organized in Rize’s Kaçkar Mountains for the past six years, will not be organized this year because the tax on helicopters purchased abroad has increased to 1,500 Turkish liras a day.

The tax was previously 2,500 liras a month.

The Kaçkar Mountains have become the center of the heliskiing, which is possible in very few areas in the world. Some 2,000 people have heliskied in the Black Sea province in the past six years.

Turkey Heliski company director Thierry Gasser said they had brought sportsmen from Europe and other countries to the region since 2005.

“Fifteen-hundred liras in tax a day means 45,000 liras a month. This tax is in force for the helicopters that are brought from abroad,” he said, adding that they must bring helicopters from abroad because there are none suitable for heliskiing in Turkey. “This is why we canceled the event this year.”

Heliskiers reach their destinations via helicopter rather than a ski lift