Kazakhstan sees rise in number of tourists in 2023

Kazakhstan reports an increase in the number of tourists staying at tourist bases, hostels and holiday camps in the last summer season. In January-September 2023, the number of visitors reached 6.2 million people which is 14.2% more compared to the same period in 2022, Kazinform News Agency cites Finprom.

The agency notes that namely Kazakhstani tourists contributed to this rise with 5.4 million people against 4.9 million in 2022, according to the National Statistics Bureau.

Almost half of these tourists – a little over 3 million people – chose to rest in resort areas.

Kazakhstan has 19 resort areas.

Almaty MountainCluster turned out to be the most popular destination in 2023 with 1.7 million people visiting it.

The next popular destination is the Caspian Sea with newly-opened 5* all-inclusive hotels on its coast. According to official data, 299,300 people stayed in hotels and tourist bases of Mangystau region.

The third popular tourist destination is Alakol Resort Area. 287,900 Kazakhstanis and foreign nationals came here to swim in a salty water and rub themselves with therapeutic muds in the summer period.

This figure completely contradicts with the data provided by the akimats of Abai and Zhetysu region. The akimat of Zhetysu region says that 1.5 million people vacationed on the southern shore of Alakol, while 1 million tourists visited the lake in Abai region.

The total number of tourists reached 2.5 million people which is 8.6 times higher than the official statistics says.

According to the National Statistics Bureau, the resort area of Alakol in Zhetysu region saw a drastic fall of accommodation sites. Thus, in 2022 the resort area had 223 facilities, while in 2023 their number reduced to 185. The southern shore of Alakol Lake and Almaty Mountain Cluster became the two tourist destinations of the country where the number of  accommodation sites decreased noticeably - by and 28 respectively. Namely this became the reason of the total decrease of accommodation sites  during the last season. In January-September 2023, the total number of such tourist facilities made 1,600.