ASTANA – In recent years, event tourism has grown in the Kazakh capital, as revealed by the country’s tour operators at the China Outbound Travel & Tourism Market (COTTM) and the Astana-Beijing 2024 Roadshow tourism exhibitions, which took place on Oct. 16-18 in Beijing.
Astana. Photo credit: The Astana Times
According to Meiramgul Balgozhina, general director of the Empire Travel Qazaqstan tour operator company, one of the current trends in the sphere of inbound tourism within the context of Kazakhstan’s Tourism Year in China has been the growth of event tourism, that is, the planning of tours dedicated to conferences, exhibitions, and sporting events held in Kazakhstan, reported the Kazinform on Oct. 19.
“This year we were the official tour operator of the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships. We have met more than 300 tourists from China who are fans of this sport. Such sporting events attract a lot of attention from Chinese tourists,” she said.
This event was attended by representatives from Kazakhstan’s tour operators, travel agencies, and hotels. The agenda featured a roadshow and B2B meetings to discuss potential collaboration and promoting Kazakhstan tourism in the Chinese market.
Seven cooperation agreements were signed between Kazakh and Chinese tourism businesses as part of the event.
This year, Astana hosted major events such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, the fifth World Nomad Games, the 27th Asian Table Tennis Championships, the Astana Think Tank Forum and many others.
