Up to 400,000 tourists may visit Lake Alakol this year
According to Kazakh Tourism National Company, the launch of new holiday camps will let increase the tourist flow to the area. Last year over 230,000 people visited the picturesque shores of Lake Alakol. This year the figure is expected to climb to and exceed the mark of 400,000, the company said in a statement.
However, tourists may face problems with transportation since the airports in Urdzhar and Usharal are yet to be opened after reconstruction. The flights have been suspended temporarily.
Elena Assylbekova, the owner of the Inju and Alakol Arassan holiday camps, doesn’t feel optimistic about the situation as she believes that lack of transportation options to the area may affect the tourist inflow. She says that unfinished Almaty-Ust-Kamenogorsk highway may be a factor in lower number of tourists this season.
In her words, train tickets to the area are not available at this point as they’ve been sold out. Plus, the fact that such big tourist destinations as Turkey, Egypt, the UAE are getting back to life after the COVID-19 hiatus will also affect domestic tourism.
Given that, Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Kairbek Usskenbayev gave an instruction to wrap up the reconstruction works at both airports as promptly as possible and appoint SCAT and Zhetysu as the airlines performing flights to the area.
Photo: semeynews.kz