More information - Kitzbuhel - Austria

Kitzbühel is one of the best known names in skiing history and remains one of winter sports key destination resorts to this day. Residents of around 40 countries annually make the trip to the Tyrol to visit the resort marketed as 'The Pearl of the Alps'. Located beneath the famous Hahnenkamm mountain, it has retained its compact village centre and traditional architecture which has grown from a thousand years of history. Today the village is a mix of the liveliest and most colourful international winter sports and après ski of a modern resort, with underlying sophistication in shopping, restaurants and accommodation. In short, there is the proverbial "something for everyone" here. One of the earliest Austrian resorts to embrace downhill skiing, the first downhill skis arrived in the village in 1892 after a resident Franz Reisch, who later became mayor, read a book from Norway about the sport. Two years later a large consignment of skis arrived from Norway to be used in the first Ski championships at the resort. At that time downhill skiing was of the basic Telemark technique, Alpine skiing developed in the early twentieth century in Austria, and the first of the famous Hahnenkamm races was staged in 1931.