Present Status and Perspectives of Tourism Development in Almaty City, Kazakhstan

According to the WTO experts, notwithstanding economic and financial downturn, the status of tourism industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and in Almaty in particular, remains stable and has a tendency for further development. The 18-th World Tourism Organization General Assembly which was held in October in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, served as a unique image-awareness event, providing with a wide opportunity to position our republic as a perspective tourist direction, and has given an impulse to the promotion of our country‘s tourist product on the world market. In 2008 the majority of foreign travelers arriving in Almaty were from Turkey (7 213 people), the CIS region (5 309), Germany (5 478), the USA (5 245), China (4 259), Poland (4 243), and Korea (3 514). State bodies, tourism business representatives, public and scientific organizations are involved in the realization of the regional Programme of tourism development designed by the Almaty municipal organ, enables to establish favourable prerequisites for further tourism development in the given region. Measures on tourism development in Almaty city have already brought an economic effect. Thus, the total volume of the serviced tourists in the region increased from 250,000 people in 2005 to 682,000 people in 2009. The number of tourists on domestic routes went up from 118,000 people in 2005 to 316,000 people in 2009. There has been a significant increase in tourist receipt growing from 8 billion 700 million tenge in 2005 to 33 billion 273 million tenge in 2009. However, there is still much to do to develop tourism industry in the region and to increase brand awareness, for instance promoting Almaty as an ideal convention and business tourism venue, improving tourism infrastructure, and training highly-qualified personnel.