More Chinese tourists tipped to visit Kazakhstan

Tourism industry insiders and experts are bullish on tourism cooperation between China and Kazakhstan this year — Kazakhstan's tourism year in China — after the two nations stepped up efforts to optimize visa policies to facilitate cross-border travel.

Kazakhstan's tourism year in China opened in Beijing late last month. Thirty-five tourism and cultural events will be organized in different provinces and cities such as Beijing and Shanghai during the year, with the aim of enhancing Chinese people's understanding of Kazakhstan and attracting more tourists to the country.

Domestic travel agencies said trips to Kazakhstan are expected to grow in popularity in the coming months as Kazakhstan enters spring, its best season for tourism.

Figures from travel portal LY.com show that from March 1 to March 27, flight bookings from the Chinese mainland to Kazakhstan were up 36 percent from the previous month, and up 366 percent year-on-year. Hotel bookings for the period on the platform jumped by 694 percent year-on-year.

"Kazakhstan is a niche destination to Chinese travelers, but it has seen increasing popularity in China thanks to its visa-free policy and the good resumption of international flights," said Qi Chunguang, vice-president of travel portal Tuniu.

He said that travel to Kazakhstan usually peaks from April to October and his platform has received some bookings for group tours to the country for late this month as well as for the May Day holiday and the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in June.

"Most of our customers going to Kazakhstan and countries and regions in Central Asia are from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong, and Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, and are middle-aged or retired," he said.

He said he is confident about tourism development between China and Kazakhstan as Kazakhstan's vast territory holds rich tourism resources like stunning natural landscapes and scenic historical spots.

Shakhrat Nuryshev, Kazakhstan's ambassador to China, told a recent news conference in Beijing that he hopes Kazakhstan grows to be a popular overseas destination for Chinese travelers, ThePaper, a news outlet headquartered in Shanghai, reported.

He said Kazakhstan received about 217,000 Chinese travelers last year, 12 times more than in 2022, but even more were needed.

Nuryshev said he hopes that Kazakhstan's tourism year activities and visa-free policy for Chinese travelers can help deepen mutual understanding and friendship and advance tourism cooperation between the two countries.

China and Kazakhstan signed an agreement in May last year to allow people holding regular Kazakh or Chinese passports to stay in the other country without a visa for up to 30 days for the purposes of business, tourism, medical treatment or transit. The agreement took effect from Nov 10.