Kazakhstan became 99th member of PATA
Held jointly by KazakhTourism National Company and the Kazakh Culture and Sport Ministry the international tourist exhibition PATA Travel Mart 2019 has opened its doors at the exhibition centre Korme. It is held for the first time in the CIS space and will last until September 20, 2019, the Strategy2050.kz correspondent informed.
The event is attended by PATA Chief Executive Officer Dr. Mario Hardy, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Sport Bakytzhan Temirbolat, Mayor of Nur-Sultan Altai Kulginov, government and business representatives. It also gathered over 250 sellers from 32 countries.
The Kazakh President pays great attention to tourism development within the country. Tourism is developing very dynamically. The city of Nur-Sultan is in the list of the most attracted places in the region. Over 10 years the number of tourists and hotels has more than doubled. The new terminal’s opening allowed for even greater number of air flights. This year Nur-Sultan has joined the list of 200 tourist destinations compiled by MasterCard.
“Our country has a huge experience hosting global events starting from the OSCE Summit in 2010, the 2011 Asian Winter Olympic Games to EXPO 2017. Our country poses itself as open for visits. As of today, a visa free regime is in place for citizens from 63 countries and there is a special visa regime for citizens of India and China. The number of flights connecting Kazakhstan with world capitals grows each year”, Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and Sport Bakytzhan Temirbolat said.
Air Astana President Peter Foster once again underlined that Nur-Sultan is the first city in the Central Asian region to host such an event.
“It took 68 years for PATA to come to Central Asia. You have come here at an absolutely perfect time. There is a fantastic capital city and there are other beautiful cities such as Almaty”, the Air Astana President said.
During the event the significance of such an event for Kazakh tourist businesspeople was noted.
A memorandum to join Kazakhstan to the Pacific Asia Travel Association has been signed within the event. The country has become its 99th member.
It should be noted that the Pacific Asia Travel Association is a non-profit tr
avel trade association serving government tourism offices, hotels, airlines, and other travel-related companies in Asia Pacific.
Adlet Seilkhanov
