Investments in tourism drive growth of Mangystau region

The tourism sector of Mangystau region has attracted a record amount of almost 500 billion tenge (US$1.1 billion) of investments over 10 months of this year. The region entered the top 10 promising tourist destinations of the country. It is planned to implement 13 new tourism projects worth more than 300 billion tenge (US$690 million) in the next five years. Eight projects are planned to be introduced here with local companies by 2024.

“In recent years, tourism has become one of the priority areas for the development of the region. If 10 years ago the main area here was the oil industry, now we see the indicators, figures and statistics showing that tourism is on the rise. There are main macro-indicators, which characterize the development of tourism – these are investments attracted in the tourism sector, these are the provided services, this is the number of tourists visiting the region. These indicators describe the development of tourism in the region as a whole,” said Venera Mustapayeva, Head of Investment and Tourism Development Department of Mangystau region.

Speaking of the number of tourists, nearly 139,000 people visited Mangystau in the first half of the year, which is three times more than in the same period of 2020. This is not surprising, because the regions are actively developing all directions of tourism to every taste and opportunities, including beach, environmental, cultural, business and sacral.

“Infrastructure of tourism began rapidly developing, roads are being constructed, the inflow of tourists started to increase. A golf club, shopping arcades are being built in the beach area this year. This project in Kazakhstan is definitely the first, there are no such amusement parks even in the CIS. The Ferris wheel was constructed in accordance with global best practices. People arrive here specifically for beach tourism, but also, sacred tourism is gaining momentum now. People come to visit our sacred places,” Mustapayeva added.

Not only Kazakh residents, but also foreign nationals visit sacred places. Underground mosques Beket Ata, Shopan Ata, Shakpak Ata and Sultan Yepe are very popular among them. Travelers do not forget to get to such unusual picturesque locations as Boszhira, Mount Sherkala and Torysh valley of balls. In a word, this area has something to amaze its visitors with.

 

Translation by Saniya Sakenova

Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova