The World Tourism Organization predicts that this year global tourism will finally return to «pre-pandemic» levels. The industry, which suffered more than other sectors of the economy from lockdowns and geopolitical obstacles, has already shown a recovery to 88% of the 2019 level last year. Experts of the international industry organization are confident that in 2024 the figure will reach 100%, as there is still unsatisfied demand for tourist trips worldwide. People want to travel to different countries, but for many, the price-quality ratio of services will be extremely important, writes Energyprom.

Ratings and money

So far, Kazakhstan is not showing the most outstanding results in the battle for foreign visitors, who can bring income not only to the tourism industry but also to the transportation, hotel business, and catering.

According to one of the tourism rankings, last year Kazakhstan ranked 64th among 202 countries in the world in terms of the number of inbound tourists. According to the international online publication Countrycassette.com, about 2 million non-resident travelers visited the republic last year. Our country’s share in the overall «pie» is barely noticeable — just 0.2%. It should be noted that Kazakhstan counts tourists by the number of people staying in hotels and other accommodations. At the same time, neighboring countries count differently: for example, Uzbekistan in 2023 supposedly welcomed 6.6 million visitors, 5.6 million of whom visited relatives. If counted by this method, more than 7.5 million foreign citizens visited Kazakhstan last year.

The comparison of the number of tourists visiting Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries shows that tourism is significantly better developed in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. That’s why three to four times more tourists go to the shores of Kyrgyzstan’s high-mountain lakes and the thresholds of Uzbekistan’s ancient mosques than to Kazakhstan. And compared to leading tourist leaders — France (117.1 million tourists a year), Poland (88.5 million), Mexico (51.1 million) — our country’s figures are not comparable.

A large number of tourists in countries where governments focus on this sector bring benefits for economic development. For example, in Georgia, tourism contributes 20.8% to the economy, in Spain — 13.6%, in Turkey — 11.5%. In Kazakhstan, this indicator is much more modest — only 2.7% of GDP. This is data for 2022.

Kazakhstan’s barriers

This situation is definitely not due to a lack of tourist attractions. We have something to show and surprise.

Among the main barriers to the development of tourism in Kazakhstan are problems with infrastructure, service, quality of services in the regions, and insufficient funding of the sector by the state. According to the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the share of budget expenditures on culture, sports, tourism, and information provision in January-December last year was only 3.3% of total treasury expenses — 877.5 billion tenge was allocated.

The country allocates insufficient funds not only for ensuring high-quality roads, social and engineering infrastructure by the standards of developed countries but also for the external promotion of the country’s tourism brand.

According to the country’s chief brand manager — JSC «NC «Kazakh Tourism» — the volume of financing for programs to develop and promote the tourism potential in the Republic of Kazakhstan is very limited compared to the expenses for these purposes in other countries. For example, last year, 1.7 billion tenge was allocated for these purposes, which is 39.3% less than the figure for 2022. This is small compared to other countries. Uzbekistan last year spent about 9 million US dollars (4 billion tenge) just on developing the country’s brand and paying for advertising on global media channels.

Georgia paid 37 million US dollars (16.7 billion tenge) for promoting its tourism services at just one international exhibition, ITB Berlin. To get even close to these countries in terms of inbound tourism indicators, Kazakhstan needs to invest at least as much money in external marketing. Experts also say this.

Considering the limited funds for foreign promotion, the national company Kazakh Tourism directs efforts specifically to target markets, choosing more acceptable formats and does not place advertising on platforms such as BBC and CNN. However, the experience of countries that have implemented aggressive marketing shows a rapid recovery of economic indicators for inbound tourism, note the specialists of Kazakh Tourism.

Internal problems

In addition to the need for external presentation of Kazakhstan’s tourism brand, there is a large set of tasks for the state to work on the internal problems of the industry. These are not only the aforementioned barriers such as low quality of service or poor infrastructure but also more large-scale prospective development directions.

This includes the investment attractiveness of the tourism industry, finding new locations and tourist routes, and reducing the negative effect of the seasonality of Kazakhstan’s tourism. This is discussed in the Concept for the Development of the Tourism Industry for 2023–2029.

Data on the popularity of Kazakhstan’s regions among foreign tourists provide an understanding — foreign guests go where conditions have been created for them.

This includes the Almaty mountain cluster, the Shchuchinsk-Borovoe resort area, the Caspian Sea coast, etc. Thanks to the construction of five-star hotel complexes and the opening of charter flights, Aktau has become one of the popular destinations for domestic tourists. People are willing to pay big money for international-level service and high standards of recreation.

According to the results of selective surveys of inbound visitors in January–July last year, the regions that led in receiving guests from abroad were Astana and Almaty. They were visited by 17.3% and 16.2% of respondents, respectively. Other popular destinations were Akmola (6.8%), Mangistau (5.7%), and East Kazakhstan (5.5%) regions.