Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 31
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
The administration of Kazakh capital Astana plans to increase the level of tourist inflow up to 2 million tourists by 2020.
“Our main goal is to reach the level of 2 million tourists by 2020 - 1 million of local and 1 million of foreign tourists, visiting Astana. Last year we received 830 thousand, said Asset Issekeshev the head of the local executive body (akimat), during the meeting of the government.
He added that the country developed and defined three main directions of tourism within the special road map: business-tourism, urban-tourism and medical tourism.
“I would like to note that the holding of EXPO-2017 improved the image of Astana. We held more than 300 sports, cultural and economic events within the exhibition.”
Issekehev stressed that the city has a well-developed infrastructure, including 201 hotels with capacity of 15,000 people and 1,100 cafes and restaurants, as well as other facilities of the hospitality industry.
The city also plans to build new facilities to attract more tourists to the country, including the Space Museum, the Botanical Garden, water parks, entertainment centers and sports facilities.
All these activities are expected to attract tourists from Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, Iran and China.