ASTANA – The Kazakh Tourism national company will be designing tours attractive to travellers from Russia and China. The promotion will focus on the Internet.
Rashid Kuzembayev. Photo credit: kursiv.kz
The company recently held a press tour for journalists in the capital, where board chair Rashid Kuzembayev announced plans for 2018.
“Our target groups are tourists from the Russian Federation and China. The Russian tourist usually travels to Kazakhstan in summer during beach season. Among popular destinations are Borovoe, Alakol and Balkhash. A number of initiatives are planned to attract Russian tourists in winter,” he said.
This year’s attractions include an exhibition called “Kazakhstan – the Great Steppe country,” an expedition to 20 of the nation’s mountain peaks and a trip along the Silk Road with Polish traveller Jacek Palkiewicz. Beginning in China, the tour will weave through Central Asia, Russia and Belarus to Poland, passing through the capital and the Borovoe.
“Meticulous work is being done to analyse our target groups and to find ways of communicating information which potential tourists want to hear about our country. Currently, television and the Internet play an equally important role in advertising tourism. In five years, however, travellers will rely more on the Internet as a source of information. Therefore, we will focus on promoting tourism on the Internet,” noted Kuzembayev.
China has the largest number of outbound tourists in the world, which opens favourable opportunities for Kazakhstan, officials here believe.
“There are certain difficulties regarding national security, visa and migration laws. Chinese tourists are also quite demanding in terms of food. They want to see their national cuisine in the places they visit. Regarding the types of activities, they are interested in hunting, fishing and military tours. We must be prepared for such a demand. There are no ready military tours and the readiness of our tour companies is still questionable,” he said.
“I have several ideas for promoting Kazakhstan in China. First of all, work needs to be done with the help of our partners and bloggers on the Internet. We also need to participate in exhibitions and hold a roadshow for Chinese media, bloggers and tour companies,” he added.
Kazakh Tourism was established in 2017 to promote Kazakhstan as an international travel destination and attract investments. It is also charged with forming a national brand and tourist image.
