According to the Bureau of National Statistics of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the number of domestic tourists in 2021 exceeded the pre-pandemic level and reached 9.9 million visitors.

Outbound tourism

The study took a sample survey of 21,000 households and their travel expenses in 2021. While domestic tourism recovered well after the pandemic, the number of international travelers was at 800,000 tourists, which was way below the level of 2019 where the number was at 3 million tourists.

Kazakhstanis traveled inside the country and abroad for mostly personal reasons. More than 4 million citizens visited friends and relatives, 2.3 million went on vacation and recreation, 753,400 people went shopping, 527,800 traveled for business trips.

Last year 390,000 transborder travelers went on vacation and recreation, 265,500 visited friends and relatives, 137,500 went for professional purposes, and 38,400 thousand people left for medical and wellness procedures.

Household expenditures on foreign tourism increased by almost one and a half times the 2020 year level, amounting to 157.6 billion tenge, while compared to 2019, this figure almost halved. Spendings on domestic tourism increased by 26.2% over the year and by 18.6% compared with 2019, amounting to 367.2 billion tenge.