ASTANA (TCA) — As part of his working trip to Almaty on December 21, Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev visited a number of infrastructure facilities to see the development of the tourist potential of the city: the Almaty-2 railway station and the Visit Almaty tourist hub. A presentation of the new Carsharing service also took place in Almaty, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
During a visit to the new tourist hub Visit Almaty, which was opened in the Baluan Sholak Palace of Sports in November 2018, the Prime Minister was told that every tourist can get all the necessary information in the consulting center: maps, guides, atlases of mountain routes, brochures of tour operators, announcements of cultural events, etc. In addition, consultants assist in solving various problems — from emergency, law-related and health to logistics issues. Over 11 months, more than 25.2 thousand tourists received a consultation at the center.
According to Almaty administration, thanks to the work being done, the number of tourists in the city in 2018 increased by 11% compared to 2017. About 43.6% of tourists visited Almaty, almost half of all foreign tourists coming to Kazakhstan.
One of the projects to increase the tourist attractiveness will be the reconstruction of Almaty-2 railway station, scheduled for 2019–2020. During the site visit, Sagintayev was informed that the project provides for the construction of an additional terminal, the second route between Almaty-2 and Almaty-1 stations, underground passages and new passenger platforms for suburban routes.
The Prime Minister was also presented a new service system of Carsharing. The system allows to issue a per-minute car rental through a mobile application. This service is available to anyone with a driver’s license. In Almaty, the service was launched in October 2018, today the number of registered users of the service exceeds 10 thousand people. In total, more than a hundred new cars have been launched, while the number in 2019 will be 500, and by 2021 there will be a fleet of 1.5 thousand cars in the country. According to Anytime company, in March 2019, it is planned to start the service in Astana and in the end of 2019 in Shymkent.
Kazakhstan pays special attention to the development of tourism. In 2019, the State Program for the Development of Tourism until 2023 will be developed for the first time. The main goal of the program will be to increase the share of tourism in GDP to 8%.
