ASTANA – Kazakhstan’s major event, EXPO 2017, welcomed its three-millionth visitor on Aug. 25. He turned out to be a 38-year-old resident of Moscow, Yuri Shurygin.
Akhmetzhan Yessimov (R) and Yuri Shurygin
“I liked the Kazakhstan pavilion. Now I need to visit the Russian pavilion. Of course, we would like to see an event of such a scale to take place in the Ural region. There is a possibility of expo taking place in Yekaterinburg in 2025. We really hope it will happen,” said Shurygin on the day of his visit.
At the same time, Chairperson of the Astana EXPO 2017 National Company Akhmetzhan Yessimov decided to personally congratulate him and present special gifts.
Yessimov has also said that the number of people attending the expo is increasing every day. According to him, 15 percent of visitors are foreigners, most of them are from Russia.
“One of the main aims of the exhibition was to increase the tourist flow into the country. We reached the projected mark. EXPO 2017 justified our expectations completely. The exhibition increased not only the number of jobs, but also increased incomes. Everyone felt the multiplication effect for small and medium-sized businesses. The hotels occupancy has doubled. The same dynamics can be observed with restaurants and public catering points of the city,” said Yessimov.
On Aug. 24, Kazakhstan’s national pavilion, Nur Alem, registered its one-millionth visitor.
Earlier it was expected that during three months the exhibition will be visited by two million people. That goal was reached on Aug. 4. The lucky visitor was a 34-year-old businessman from Uralsk Gaisa Zhumaliyev.
The future of the exhibition has become interesting object for many people. Yessimov has stated that President Nursultan Nazarbayev has approved the plan of post-exhibition use of its facilities. After Sept. 10, maintenance works will take place, after which the main facilities will start working again as three legacy projects are to take shape – the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC), the Future Energy international center for the transfer of green technologies and investment projects and the international IT start-up hub.
