KEY STATISTICS FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DAY

On September 27, the world celebrates International Tourism Day, established by the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization in 1979. This year the holiday is under the theme «Tourism and green investment», which highlights the need for more and better-targeted investments for the Sustainable Development Goals. Now is the time for new and innovative solutions, not just traditional investments that promote and underpin economic growth and productivity.

According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, from 2020 to 2022, investments amounting to 4 billion US dollars were attracted to the tourism industry of Kazakhstan. For example, last year their volume amounted to 513.3 billion tenge. In addition, over the indicated period, more than 400 tourist facilities were built in the country. This year it is planned to implement 115 investment projects worth 288 billion, which will create more than 14 thousand beds and more than 1.5 thousand permanent jobs.

For the first half of 2023, the volume of tax revenues from tourism activities in Kazakhstan amounted to about 208 billion tenge. This is 10.4% more than in the same period in 2022. And at the end of last year, a record figure of 389 billion tenge was recorded.

Also, in the first half of 2023, the country’s hotels served tourists for 98.7 billion tenge. This is 45% more than in the same period last year. And the number of domestic tourists who used the services of accommodation facilities in the first 6 months of this year reached 3.1 million people. This is 400 thousand more people than in the same period in 2022. The number of ecotourists has increased to 2 million.

The number of foreign tourists who stayed in the country’s accommodation sites in January-June of this year amounted to 516 thousand - 1.8 times higher than the result for the first 6 months of last year. At the same time, on average, one guest from foreign countries brings Kazakhstan an income of $1,500.

In addition, the country has 7 measures of state support for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. These include: subsidizing the costs of tour operators for each foreign tourist, subsidizing the cost of air tickets in Kazakhstan for children (Kids Go Free program), reimbursement to entrepreneurs of part of the costs for the purchase of ski equipment, vehicles (25%), construction of roadside service facilities, construction and reconstruction tourist facilities (10%), as well as subsidies for the maintenance of sanitary facilities (83,300 tenge per month).