Tokayev once again instructed to develop the infrastructure for mountain skiing tourism in Almaty and the Almaty region

During his address to the people of Kazakhstan, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, focusing on problematic issues in the field of tourism, once again instructed to develop modern infrastructure for mountain and ski tourism in Almaty and the Almaty region.

According to him, there are problematic issues in the tourism sector: there is a shortage of professional staff and the possibilities for solving problems are currently limited. He recalled that in July this year he gave instructions to put all tourist facilities in order, and this work is under his personal control.

"It is important not only to develop popular vacation spots that people often visit, but also to unlock the potential of other promising locations. The tasks should be clearly delineated: local executive bodies should always pay special attention to the comprehensive development of tourism infrastructure and be responsible for it," he said.

The government will be responsible for encouraging tourists from abroad to visit and for creating laws to support tourism within the country.

In this context, the president focused on mountain and ski tourism in Almaty and the Almaty region.

"Today, the key task in this direction is the construction of modern infrastructure. If we successfully cope with this task, our country's resorts will become known throughout the world and will turn into a national brand of Kazakhstan," Tokayev said.

In November 2022, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the need to form a mountain tourism cluster in the Almaty agglomeration.

People active in public life, people who work to protect the environment and people who know a lot about tourism did not like the plan to build cable cars, hotels and other things for tourists in the Almaty mountain area. They stated that such unprecedented development of mountain areas would lead to the degradation of ecological systems and the deterioration of the ecological situation not only in the mountains but also in the city, as well as to an increase in morbidity, and called for the development of other types of tourism. They also emphasized that there are currently no studies on how many tourists visit the country specifically for mountain skiing tourism.

The comprehensive development plan for the Almaty cluster is designed for 2025–2029. It includes 127 measures with a total budget of 655.9 billion tenge, of which 322 billion tenge comes from the national budget, 121.4 billion from the local budget, and 212.3 billion tenge from private investment. The Ministry of Tourism expects that all this will increase the number of foreign tourists to 1.8 million and tax revenues to 184.3 billion tenge.