How many guests Astana expects at EXPO-2017

ASTANA. KAZINFORM Ilya Urazakov, Director of Department for Work with International Participants of Astana EXPO told journalists from which countries exhibition expects its guests to come, Kazinform correspondent reports.  

Mr. Urazakov reminded that, according to the organizers' forecasts, it is expected that 2.4 million people will visit the exhibition, of whom 15 percent will be foreign tourists.

"It is common when this kind of exhibitions have around 70-80 percent and in our case 85 percent local tourists and 15 percent foreign. Roughly speaking it's around 600 to 750 thousand people. It is clear that the lion's share of visitors, 70 percent, will come from near abroad... Today, we expect about 150-200 thousand to come from China, as Chinese travel agencies are very interested in the exhibition. Around 150-200 thousand of visitors are expected to come from the far abroad countries of Europe, North America and so on. Unfortunately, there is no breakdown available of this number," said Ilya Urazakov during a presser in the Italian pavilion.

According to him, it is now being analyzed how many people and from which countries purchase the tickets. "This process in itself is rather complicated, as it happens through a certain operator. Therefore, we will be able to provide this data after the exhibition," he explained.

Mr. Urazakov noted that within the framework of the exhibition more than three thousand cultural events, 40 scientific conferences and major forums, as well as 126 national days will be held.

Specialized Expo 2017 will be held in Astana between 10 June and 10 September 2017.