Number of foreign tourists in Almaty increases 1/4
In his opening speech, Deputy Mayor of Almaty Arman Kyrykbayev noted that in Q1 2017 the metropolis was visited by over 200,000 people, which is 18% more than last year, including the foreign guests' number increased by 24%. The amount of services rendered by the hotels has increased by 18 percent and equals KZT20bn. The city develops such kinds of tourism as medical, sports, event, cultural and ecological, business, gastronomic, shopping tourism. Special attention is paid to mountain tourism.
Due to its natural-geographical and geopolitical advantages, Almaty increases its contribution to the development of world mountain tourism. So, recently published Worldwide Costof Living ranked Almaty as one of the most comfortable and inexpensive cities, attractive for life and work.
"Modern sport infrastructure, allowing to host competitions of any level, has been established in Almaty. This year, we hosted the World Winter Student Games, which enabled us to posture the metrolopolis as an international center for winter tourism, and also gave a good boost to the development of mass and world-class sports. No doubt, Almaty can be called the ski capital of Central Asia," the deputy mayor said.
Nowadays, the city has 166 hotels, hostels, campsites, over 2,000 cafes, restaurants, 19 theaters, 20 museums, 14 art galleries and exhibitions. There are 569 tourist organizations that need to be reoriented from outbound to inbound tourism. Thus, about 3 of 9 million people, who went abroad for recreation from the whole country, departed from Almaty in 2016. That is to say that the tourism should become one of the main drivers for the development of Almaty city. Moreover, there is a huge potential for creating new jobs.
Speakers from 10 countries took part in the international forum. Günter Oberhauser, General Director at Warth ski resort and Tourist Department of Warth Holding GmbH from Austria, spoke about the effect of the resort for the development of the territory and the economy of the nearby cities. In turn, PGI Management CEO Joan Viladomat and Managing Director Julio Ventaja from Spain shared their experience on the potential development of the mountain-skiing industry in Kazakhstan as exemplified in Andorra. During the forum, the Senior Manager of the China Winter Sports Association, Deputy General Manager at the Beijing Wanda Culture Industry Group, Bin Wu, spoke about the development of the ski industry in China.