Event Tourism and Car Rental

On Sunday morning we went for breakfast at a café in the old city centre. It was full, and more than half the customers were foreigners. Kanye West had played a concert the day before, moved from Friday because of the weather. An artist of that stature generated a real buzz, and thousands of tourists came to Kazakhstan from neighbouring countries. The crowd was no fewer than 30,000.

Over the past few years Kazakhstan has hosted a large number of world-class concerts. For us this is not just a chance to see and hear global stars, but also a chance to develop event tourism. Event tourism does not rest on concerts alone. It can be sports: think of Real Madrid's visit to Almaty and the thousands of fans who came from other countries. It can be festivals, world-class theatre productions, international forums, sporting tournaments and so on. Every such event brings Kazakhstan millions of dollars, and the main beneficiaries are SMEs.

In 2025 Almaty received 2.49 million tourists, of whom 754,000 were foreigners, which is half of the country's entire inbound flow. On average a foreign visitor spends 4 days here and leaves about $1,500. So our task is not to bring in more people, but to get them to stay longer and spend more. That is exactly what event tourism is about: a person comes for a specific date but stays for a week, if there is a reason to stay.

I think we need to build on this momentum, strengthen event tourism and create even better conditions for it in Kazakhstan, especially in Almaty. At present our growth rests largely on geopolitics: countries such as Russia and the Emirates have become less attractive locations for various events. In this respect Kazakhstan has a better chance in the region of capturing this market, because our cities are relatively developed, security is good and the infrastructure is reasonably adequate. But geopolitics is a temporary thing. If we secure a place in the world now as a venue for events, then even if the geopolitical situation changes, we can hold on to this market and keep expanding it.

From the state's standpoint, what is needed is to address the weaknesses that, one way or another, affect the choice of our country as a tourist destination. In the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Development Index, Kazakhstan ranks a seemingly decent 52nd out of 119 countries, but once you break it down into its components, the picture is different. Our lowest scores are for ground infrastructure, 2.82 out of 7, and cultural resources, 2.07 out of 7. Our highest are for price competitiveness and safety. Put in plain language: it is cheap and safe to come to us, but hard to get around and not very clear what to see. That is what we need to fix.

The airport is gradually acquiring an international look, but getting from the airport to a hotel is not an easy task. An LRT, a metro or shuttle buses could partly improve the situation, but most tourists will still take taxis. Post-Soviet countries have Yandex Taxi, but foreigners from other countries do not use Yandex, and I think we need to find a way to create conditions for Uber's return or the entry of Bolt and other platforms. A tourist should be able to open the app already on their phone, rather than stand outside the terminal trying to work out what works here while touts approach with inflated prices.

Moreover, for a country as vast as ours, particularly given the road infrastructure that has been built, car rental needs to be developed. Here, too, things are not yet good, and there are probably legislative barriers. We need to study them and remove them. Car rental immediately raises another question: paying for parking. Current parking payment systems allow payment only through banking apps, and many operators cannot accept cards or cash. It is unlikely that a foreign tourist will install our banking app and go through registration just to drive around for a few days. Operators should be required to accept payment by any method, and where they cannot, parking should be free.

Next, mapping services. In Kazakhstan the Russian Yandex Maps and 2GIS are the most developed, and they are not very popular with many foreigners. So I think we should step up engagement with Google and Apple for their deeper integration in the country, so that our venues, addresses and routes are displayed properly in the apps tourists open out of habit.

Payments are a separate topic. We have come a long way in digitalisation, but into our own closed circuit. Small sole proprietors mostly accept payment by QR code or bank transfer, which is unworkable for foreign tourists.

Roadside and restroom infrastructure deserves separate attention. I remember the launch of the Kazavtozhol programme, when restrooms with shops were installed along the highways. If any official simply drove out on an inspection today, he would find that the restrooms are still outdoor ones that are best not entered without a gas mask. It would be better to involve private petrol stations, give them infrastructure and land, and they would build and maintain everything themselves. Why KAZh was needed for this is a rhetorical question. And a tourist who comes for a concert will want to stay for a couple of days or three, and may also want to visit neighbouring countries, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and so on. It works in both directions, too. We therefore need to cooperate with our neighbours and promote Central Asian tourism as a whole. We could look at a joint visa, along the lines of Schengen, and improve transport links between the countries.

We also need event infrastructure, which the city lacks: concert halls, exhibition centres, modern stadiums, hotels and so on. A lot seems to be under way in Almaty in this direction, but it needs a closer look.

Another open question is how the country is positioned in the world. I may not be entirely right, but it seems to me there is not enough marketing abroad. Something is being done, but there is no coherent picture. In my view, promoting the country globally must be comprehensive, and bloggers and documentaries alone will not do. We need dozens of different promotion channels, work with travel agencies, airlines and major international events.

We are a safe country, with unique nature and hospitable people, and now is a good chance to increase the flow of tourists. I think that with the new Parliament many initiatives can be pushed through. But we need to understand that event tourism is not about bringing in one more star and reporting on it with a flourish. It is about getting someone who came for a single evening to want to stay for a week, and then to come back. Private companies will bring in events and stars, as they do now, and it is for them that we need to create the right conditions.