Baku, Azerbaijan, August 24
By Nargiz Sadikhova – Trend:
Kazakhstan could become one of the most attractive spots for foreign and Kazakh tourists, as well as one of the global centers for ethnic tourism in the near future, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, Trend reports with reference to the press office of the president.
According to Tokayev, one of the most important challenges of the country is to develop the tourism potential of Kazakhstan.
“Many foreign tourists are tired with five star hotels and resorts. Their interests lie in studying culture, customs and traditions of various nations, getting acquired with the history of the country they are visiting. This is why the demand for visiting distinctive places, participating in historic festivals and most important historic events' reconstructions is growing,” the president noted.
In his opinion, Kazakhstan should use such trends as the country has a lot to offer.
“In order for Kazakhstan to become more attractive for tourists, the industrial state program has been approved. Its full implementation will allow to increase the share of tourism to eight percent in GDP’s structure,” the president stated.
Tokayev added that the number of foreign tourists should be increased to nine million people, the number of local tourists should be increased to eight million people and the number of those working in tourism sphere should exceed 650,000 people.
However, the tourism is a hard sphere and the training of corresponding specialists should be implemented for its development.
“To this end, the decision to establish the tourism university has been made. We need to prepare qualified staff, who will be able to work in the sphere. We should take a number of systemic and at the same time specific measures to develop the tourism business in the country,” Tokayev concluded.
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