TikTok and the national company Kazakh Tourism have announced the results of their joint campaign to promote domestic tourism in Kazakhstan, QazMonitor reports.
For twenty days, users from all over Kazakhstan got the chance to create and publish creative and informative video content with tips on traveling around the country. They shared recommendations for national dishes and showed off the most beautiful locations to visit including national parks, the steppe, historical sites, architectural and natural monuments on the UNESCO heritage lists, city landmarks and much more.
More than 2,800 videos have been published by users under the hashtag #TravelKazakhstan, with the total number of views exceeding 11 million.
The project, which is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, selected and published the names of the three winners with the most creative videos. They will each receive a quadcopter and the first and second place winners will become the hosts of the official Kazakh Tourism account on TikTok.
First place went to Aset Murzabaev @travelove100. Together with his wife Mukhabbat, Aset creates travel videos about his native Kazakhstan and other countries of the world and has attracted more than 450,000 subscribers. During #TravelKazakhstan, Aset explained what an 'alty bakan' is, showed a modern visitor center in Ile-Alatau national park and the 'Kazakh Switzerland', and shared videos of the Lake Kaindy from a bird's eye view.
Second place went to Aigerim Tolbassy @sayahatshy. Aigerim is only 21, but she has already established herself as a travel-influencer and shoots colorful videos about the most beautiful tourist locations in Kazakhstan - Bozzhyra tract, Lake Kaindy. She also shot a mini-film about ancient Turkestan, described in detail how to get to the Assy plateau near Almaty and documented a sunset on the Caspian Sea.
Azamat Zhakiyanov @zhakibjj took third place. The author shoots videos and acts as a guide himself, telling the story of his native land. As part of the #TravelKazakhstan project, Azamat made a tour of the spiritual capital of the Kazakhs - Ulytau - showing the beauty of the steppes and the mausoleum of Jochi Khan.
The project also included live broadcasts from three regions of the country that were watched by more than 35,000 people. Musician, actor and showman Anuar Nurpeisov gave a tour of Almaty, along with the health trail at the high-mountain Medeo ice rink and at Shymbulak. Tourist guide Mukhtar Toibazarov and TikTok star and chemistry teacher Ulan Usenov, @wannabeteacher, led a gastro tour of Ust-Kamenogorsk for the TikTok community. Another guide, Dina Sheriyazdanova, and entrepreneur and sportsman Valikhan Ten, @drugoi.ty, conducted a live broadcast from the ancient city of Turkestan. The tour route ran through archeological excavations and ended at the mausoleum of Ahmet Yassawi.
"Kazakhstan is a country rich in natural beauty, cultural heritage and incredibly talented and creative people. I hope that thanks to our campaign with Kazakh Tourism even more people around the world see Kazakhstan as a unique tourist destination and that Kazakh people themselves get inspired to travel more around their country and share their recommendations on TikTok. The high involvement of users in the project demonstrates a great interest in the topic of domestic tourism in Kazakhstan. We plan to continue supporting this direction and will be happy to see more and more new authors of travel content on TikTok," Nadezhda Lapina, senior operations manager of TikTok.
"We are working to make the people of Kazakhstan more aware of the sights of their country, be proud of them and have the opportunity to tell the whole world about them. After all, Kazakhstan has everything - from mountains, forests, and steppes, to the cosmic landscapes of Mangistau: there are representatives of more than 100 ethnic groups that have preserved their language and traditions. The results of the #TravelKazakhstan campaign exceeded our expectations, and we intend to continue our cooperation.
