The presentation was held with the participation of the Vice-Minister of Culture and Sport of Kazakhstan Yerlan Kozhagapanov and the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NCE RK Atameken, Olzhas Ordabayev.

The state program for the development of inbound and domestic tourism of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the years 2019-2023 includes ten key areas. One of them is the definition of priority areas for tourism.

The ministry conducted a study and identified the top 10 places that provided the largest flow of tourists in the country. Under the new state program, 600 billion tenge will be attracted for the development of priority places.

“Kazakhstan is a huge country with a lot of tourist places. The budget does not allow us to develop all the places at the same time, therefore the list of the most priority territories was determined. For example, the coast of the Alakol and Balkhash lakes, the mountain cluster of Almaty and the Almaty region are included in the map of touristization,” - Yerkebulan Khasenov, adviser to the vice minister of culture and sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said at the presentation.

In total, the map includes 60 objects, most of which are located in the regions. According to the new tourism development program, 10 priority projects will receive tax preferences. Also in the priority areas, managing companies will be created, behind which land plots will be reserved and the external infrastructure will be brought.

The list of key measures included the issuance of cheap loans for businesses in the tourism sector. This measure involves lending up to 20 years with a 14% rate, half of which will be subsidized by the state.

The program also pays special attention to marketing. According to Yerkebulan Khasenov, people in the world know about the tourist zones of Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, which is the result of solid work and a large budget. “To increase the budget to 7 billion tenge, it is proposed to introduce BED TAX - a tourist fee of $ 2 from foreigners per bed-day. At the same time, it is worth noting that foreigners who stayed in hostels and guest houses will be exempted from payments. This measure in the future will help reduce the burden on the budget. Pilot project will be implemented in Astana," - Khasenov said.

As part of the program, it was proposed to introduce the e-Visa and e-Hotel systems, and to remove the “invitation” option. The ministry also put forward a proposal to apply the “Open Skies” policy in 5 degrees of air freedom.

“The air transport costs make a vast majority of spendings. We propose to introduce the fifth degree of freedom of air over Astana, Almaty, Aktau and Shymkent, of course, taking into account the interests of Kazakhstani air carriers. Thus, the costs will be reduced up to 20% only due to tickets for flights,” - it was said at the presentation.

The program's developers propose to return government regulation of prices for aviation kerosene, subsidizing airlines' expenses for purchasing fuel, subsidizing children's air travel during the holidays on the principle of "Kids go Free", which will stimulate domestic travel and increase passenger traffic.

According to the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NCE RK "Atameken", Olzhas Ordabaev, the program really covers strategic objectives, but contains almost no incentive measures to support small businesses. He cited the example of a program operating in Uzbekistan.

“There, business can receive subsidies from the state for the construction of infrastructure facilities. Or, for instance, the motivation of hotels and hotels to receive "stars". Such an audit costs about 300 thousand tenge in our country and, as a result, only 8.5% of all hotels have a "star". So let's create a motivation, compensate for at least half the cost. And the business will be ready to introduce this system, improve its conditions. Unfortunately, this is not in the program, as well as many other stimulating point tools to support SMEs,” - Olzhas Ordabayev said.

“There, business can receive subsidies from the state for the construction of infrastructure facilities. Or, for instance, the motivation of hotels and hotels to receive "stars". Such an audit costs about 300 thousand tenge in our country and, as a result, only 8.5% of all hotels have a "star". So let's create a motivation, compensate for at least half the cost. And the business will be ready to introduce this system, improve its conditions. Unfortunately, this is not in the program, as well as many other stimulating point tools to support SMEs,” - Olzhas Ordabayev said.

In turn, the Vice-Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan Yerlan Kozhagapanov said that, in its current form, the draft Program will need to be seriously defended before all state bodies.

“Many of our measures are under threat; many officials “cut” the measures and do not make concessions. And we have a high probability to receive the document, which will fall on the shelf once again. After all, every government agency has its own task, which it is trying to fulfill. The Ministry of Finance should give as little money as possible, and even better - not at all. The Ministry of Economics should save as much money as possible, or don't allocate at all, in a perfect world. Therefore, here we will not manage without the active support of all interested parties. We need active public support at different sites,” - Yerlan Kozhagapanov noted.

The main developers of the Program (Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan) state that the measures included in the document will allow Kazakhstan to increase the share of tourism in the GDP structure up to 8% by 2023. Also. it will provide an increase in the number of people employed in the tourism industry from 400 to 650 thousand people, and an external tourist flow from 6.5 to 9 million visitors and the number of domestic tourists from 4.6 to 8 million.