Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 9
By Rashid Shirinov – Trend:
The policy of Kazakhstan on developing the tourism industry and attracting more and more tourists every year is yielding great results.
The number of foreign tourists who arrived in the country in the first half of 2018 amounted to 4.2 million people, Energyprom.kz reported.
This is 21.8 percent more than in the same period last year. The number of outbound tourists has also increased – by 7.1 percent compared to January-June 2017, amounting to 5 million people.
Moreover, domestic tourism is developing in Kazakhstan – the number of tourists increased by 7 percent to 2.4 million people. Hotels, campsites and other accommodation facilities served 2.3 million visitors in the first half of 2018, which is 4.8 percent more than a year earlier.
According to the results of the first half of the year, the number of Kazakh hotels ready to receive guests reached 3,200, which is 10.8 percent more than a year ago. The number of rooms in them has increased by 8.1 percent to 160,000.
Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sports has previously announced that it plans to increase the share of tourism in the country’s GDP to 8 percent by 2025 and attract up to 13 million tourists per year.
Currently citizens of 67 countries have the right to visa-free travel to Kazakhstan for tourism purposes.