Kazakhstan’s hidden city aims to transform into a seaside resort

Despite the presence of Russian bases, Priozersk’s Mayor Mansur Akhmetov is trying to transform the city into a seaside resort, reports Kazinform News Agency correspondent, citing AFP.

“We are going to redevelop the entire coastline, so that pedestrians can walk along it. We also plan to build hotels and organize efforts to clean the beaches,” said Akhmetov of his ambitious plans.

This project is in line with President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s desire to develop the country’s tourism sector, which represents just 3.2 percent of its GDP.

Priozersk is already home to a smattering of small hotels that mostly host fishermen and a trickle of tourists during the first days of summer.

“Even if the town seems partly abandoned, Lake Balkhash is magnificent. I enjoy the warm water and the sand on the beach,” said Olga Ryapolova, a Russian tourist from Siberia who ‘hopes to come back’ to Priozersk soon.

Upon closer inspection, the picturesque lake contrasts with the desolation elsewhere.

A disused cement factory still stands near the lake’s shores, which Mayor Akhmetov hopes to one day demolish.

However, along the sole road to the peninsula’s end, there stands a newly constructed hotel, “The Golden Sands.” This four-star spa, built in 2016, has provided a valuable source of employment, now staffing 120 employees.

“In Priozersk, jobs are scarce, and mainly linked to the army. My mother is a soldier, I was a police officer,” said the spa’s receptionist Aizhan Musina.

Musina was born in Priozersk when the city was still sealed off from the public. She has long been waiting for her hometown to open up to tourists.

The city hotel’s old sign, once displaying “Hotel Russia” in Cyrillic letters, has been taken down. It now sits collecting dust on the roof, next to a rusted portrait of Vladimir Lenin.

“I want there to be a beautiful hotel in the center of the city, like in the Soviet era. So I am restoring it, little by little,” recounted Alexei Vereshchagin, a Soviet Army veteran.

Once the hotel is renovated, ordinary tourists will be able to stay near Lake Balkhash’s shores with its “magnificent views”, Vereshchagin said.

The development of a thriving tourism sector in Priozersk would mark a dramatic change of fortune for the once-closed city, long unmarked on maps because of secretive military sites, the article concludes.