The Kazakh tourist sector is set to receive an important boost after an announcement from the Central Asian country’s Prime Minister that sees visa restrictions lifted for citizens of 80 foreign nations.
Lifting “deterrents”
The new policy, unveiled in a meeting on 31 October 2023 and confirmed by the Prime Minister’s press office, will not only make trips to Kazakhstan visa-free for 80 states, but also means citizens of another 109 countries will now be able to apply for electronic visas, in an easing of the type of bureaucracy that the IATA recently called a “deterrent” to tourists.
The Kazakh tourism industry is a growing market but is currently dominated by domestic travel. Data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports shows that over three million Kazakhs took domestic trips in just the first six months of 2023, up 15% on the previous year. The figure is expected to reach an extraordinary nine million by year end.
Meanwhile, numbers of foreign visitors to Kazakhstan are also building, having doubled to more than half a million in the first half of the year – a figure anticipated to triple by the end of 2023.
Investment honeypot
Unsurprisingly the sector is attracting investment – up 44% on 2022 for the period to Q4 – representing 404.8 billion tenge ($860 million).
With a firm eye on developing the country’s tourist offer, PM Alikhan Smailov called for “breakthrough projects in the tourism sector” and pointed to the four billion dollars poured into the sector over the last four years. “More than 400 facilities have been built, and nearly 7,000 permanent jobs have been created,” he said, but pushed for this to go further.
Areas that still need to evolve are the country’s infrastructure and logistical procedures, the amount of accommodation, and service quality, which Smailov suggested was not yet sufficiently “sensitive to complaints and recommendations from tourists.” Such improvement “tasks” are within the remit of the nation’s “Akims”, or local mayors and governors, he said.
State agencies also needed to act to ensure all “local historical monuments, picturesque natural landscapes, and other historical heritage” are “properly integrated into tourism products,” Smailov continued.
Improving tourist safety, promoting the country effectively and implementing biometric and digital innovations are all further keys he identified.
EU’s soft power
Observers will note the easing of Kazakh visa requirements for such a huge raft of nations comes shortly after an October 2023 consultation summit in Brussels between EU officials and Kazakhstan. EU citizens have had access to visa-free entry to Kazakhstan since 2017.
The recent talks centred on now making visa controls easier for Kazakhs who wish to visit the bloc, which possesses “a truly strong soft power attraction for the people of Kazakhstan”, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko.
