Kazakhstan may earn $500mln from Chinese tourists' visits in 2024
Analysts say Kazakhstan may earn around 500 million US dollars this year from Chinese tourists' visits to the country, Kazinform News Agency reports.
At the international forum held in Almaty in honor of closure of the Year of Kazakhstan Tourism in China, Chairman of the Management Board of NC Kazakh Tourism Kairat Sadvakassov said that the flow of tourists from China to Kazakhstan keeps rising having reached 550,000 people in 10 months of this year, which significantly surpasses the last year's indicator - 367,000 people.
According to him, for the first time, the number of Chinese tourists arriving in Kazakhstan surpassed the number of Kazakhstani tourists visiting China. 400,000 Kazakhstanis traveled to China from January to September this year, while nearly 550,000 Chinese tourists entered Kazakhstan, which proves growing interest in Kazakhstan.
He said that a Chinese tourist spends, on average, around 1,000 US dollars in Kazakhstan within 5-7 days. Based on this statistics, income from tourism may exceed 500 million US dollars by the end of the year.
"According to our data, a Chinese tourist spends, on average, 1,000 US dollars, but according to information from Mastercard, this sum makes 573 US dollars. However, this relates only to the Mastercard users. Other experts state that more than half (57%) of Chinese tourists prefer to use cash. Therefore, we believe that the real expenses of tourists are significantly higher than the data provided by Mastercard. We assume that the average amount is about 1,000 US dollars. On average, Chinese tourists stay in Kazakhstan from 4 to 7 days: tourists come for 5-7 days, and guests who come on a short-term work visa stay for 3-4 days," said the head of Kazakh Tourism.
Director General of Mastercard in Kazakhstan and Central Asia Sanzhar Zhamalov shared information on what regions of China the tourists come from. In his words, 31% of Chinese tourists arrive from Guangzhou, 20% - from Beijing, 12% - from Urumqi, 12% - from Shanghai, and 8% - from Hangzhou. He added that tourists from neighboring countries stay in Almaty, on average, from 7 to 9 days.
As reported, Almaty hosted today an international forum devoted to the closure of the Year of Kazakhstan Tourism in China.
