"Dubai of the North"

Salzburg ski “architect” builds up tourism

Gernot Leitner is in demand as a "ski architect".(Bild: zVg)

Kazakhstan's winter tourism is growing under the leadership of volleyball president Gernot Leitner from Salzburg.The 57-year-old once helped plan the Olympics in Russia and China.A 100 million project is keeping the former indoor and beach volleyball player on his toes.

"The lads have to dress warmly, snow and sub-zero temperatures are on the cards," says Gernot Leitner about Austria's national soccer team's match against Kazakhstan in Almaty tomorrow at 8 pm local time. The 57-year-old spends up to ten times a year there, managing the 100-million-dollar modernization of a ski resort with his company masterconcept.

"Rejecting more projects than we accept"
With his planning office, the Salzburg-born architect has developed traffic concepts for the Olympic Games in Sochi and Beijing as well as for the Football World Cup in Russia, built ski resorts and made a name for himself internationally. "We now turn down far more projects than we accept," says Leitner as he selects the color of the façade on one of the lift stations at the gates of the metropolis of two million people.

Gernot Leitner used to be a successful volleyball player, champion with Donaukraft and, with Nik Berger and Oliver Stamm, one of the first Austrians in international beach volleyball. Today, he runs offices in Salzburg, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, where he is co-partner of a ski resort.

With peaks up to 5,000 meters high in the immediate vicinity of the city, Almaty is also predestined for skiers. According to studies, there are around 100,000 skiers in the Kazakh capital. "There are currently only two reasonably modern ski resorts. The market is still underexposed."

Active in Almaty for seven years
Leitner is helping to change this, bringing many red-white-red companies on board. He has been active in Almaty since 2017 and has come to know and appreciate the city: "They call Almaty the Dubai of the North. I can really only recommend checking it out. There is a lot of culture, great restaurants and a very pleasant climate."

However, the father of two will not experience the cold snap during the international soccer match. As president of the Austrian Volleyball Association and a member of the board of the world federation, he will be attending meetings in Portugal tomorrow. Forecast: a pleasantly warm 19 degrees.