Baku, Azerbaijan, October 11
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Tourism sector of Kazakhstan has on average grown by seven percent over the past 10 years, which is about three percent higher than the growth rate in the rest of country’s economy, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Askar Mamin said, Trend reports with reference to the press office of prime minister.
Mamin made the statement during the VIII Global Summit on Urban Tourism.
Within the framework of the summit, Mamin met with the Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organization Zurab Pololikashvili, with whom he discussed issues of urban governance, tourism development and smart cities, the use of advanced technologies to enhance the competitiveness of Kazakh cities.
Mamin noted that today tourism accounts for about 10 percent of global GDP, 7 percent of investments, 10 percent of jobs and 5 percent of all tax revenues.
“The tourism sector of Kazakhstan over the past 10 years has grown on average by 7 percent, which is about 3 percent higher than the growth rate in the rest of the economy. Tourism is becoming one of the important factors in our diversification - the share of GDP produced in the sector almost doubled — up to 6 percent in 2018,” prime minister said.
Mamin noted that Kazakhstan adopted the State Tourism Program for 2019-2025, which provides for increasing the share of tourism in GDP to 8 percent and turning it into one of the five leading sectors of the economy.
“About $4 billion will be allocated for the implementation of the program, more than 70 percent of which will be private investment. It is expected that the growth in the number of people employed in the tourism sector of Kazakhstan will increase by 50 percent to 650,000 people, the influx of foreign tourists will triple and exceed 9 million, which will put Kazakhstan among the 50 most competitive tourist destinations in the world,” Mamin said.
Nur-Sultan is to become the main center for the development of urban tourism.
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