The number of foreigners arriving in Kazakhstan since the beginning of summer has experienced a significant surge compared to the same period in 2022, QazMonitor reports citing the press service of the ministry of culture and sports.
Data from the eQonaq information system reveals that a total of 250,468 foreign citizens stayed in the country's hotels between June 1 and July 23. This impressive figure is more than three times higher than the number recorded during the same period in 2022, which saw 77,645 foreign tourists staying in domestic hotels.
Notably, tourists from the CIS countries accounted for the majority, with 180,000 arrivals, constituting 72% of the total number of foreign tourists. This figure was 77% in the corresponding period last year, indicating a rising trend of tourists from distant countries.
Analyzing the individual country statistics, the number of tourists from Mongolia increased by impressive 11.6 times (from 489 to 5,683), while tourists from China surged 8.5 times (from 2,223 to 18,954). Visitors from India also showed remarkable growth, rising 4.7 times (from 1,245 to 5,887), followed closely by tourists from South Korea, whose numbers increased 3.8 times (from 939 to 3,585). Additionally, the increases can be observed in the number of tourists from Iran - 3.8 times (from 237 to 897), from Germany - 3 times (from 1 659 to 5 054), from the USA - 2.2 times (from 1 237 to 2 761).
The cities of Almaty and Astana proved to be the most popular, attracting 77,308 and 38,463 tourists, respectively, from June 1 to July 23. The Almaty region and the Mangistau region also received a considerable influx of foreign visitors, with 19,049 and 15,062 tourists respectively.