ASTANA (TCA) — Tourism is becoming one of the leading sectors of Kazakhstan’s economy and one of the drivers of economic diversification. In Kazakhstan, the E-tourism portal will be launched, the Gamification of Sacred Sites project via a mobile application will begin. In Almaty region, it is planned to open a Disney park with Kazakh color. Rashid Kuzembaev, chairman of Kazakh Tourism national company, told about this in an interview with PrimeMinister.kz. Kuzembaev said that in order to stimulate domestic tourism, Kazakh Tourism will implement the project "Gamification of Sacred Sites" through a mobile application. “The target audience is young people. Most of the sacred places in the country are far from cities, where there is a weak undeveloped infrastructure. It takes a considerable amount of time to make them interesting and convenient for tourists. And due to stimulation through gaming, we can interest young people to start visiting these sacred places,” he said. Asked about what can attract foreign investors to the tourism industry in Kazakhstan, Kuzembaev said the country should rely on eco- and ethno-tourism. “We should hold festivals. They must be international and appear on the calendar of international events. This year we plan to hold a festival of nomadic culture ‘Uly Dala Ruhy’ near Astana in the framework of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the capital. Representatives of 10 countries will take part in it. Among them are Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, the countries of Central Asia.” As for projects involving foreign investment, Kuzembaev said that this should be thematic entertainment parks. “There is a very interesting project, which is planned for implementation in the Almaty region. We have previously met with potential investors – with the Shanghai Shendi Group, which implemented the ambitious Disney Park project in Shanghai, which is the most modern and most technologically advanced park of the six that exist. They are interested. We want a thematic color, which will be connected with historical persons, nomadic culture of Kazakhs in our Disney park,” Kuzembaev said. He added that now the project is at the stage of concept, the master plan, but the initiator of the project has already concluded a memorandum with the administration of Almaty region on allocation of land, and work is currently under way to develop a feasibility study.
