One of the most popular destination cities in the world, Almaty recently came calling to India at SATTE 2022 to showcase its appeal and attractions and various tourism offerings to the Indian market.
The biggest city of Kazakhstan and the financial capital of the country, Almaty is fast emerging as a popular destination with Indian outbound travellers for its lovely year-round weather, especially for Indian visitors who are exposed to much warmer climate, beautiful city setting surrounded by mountains, lakes, pristine nature and trees, big entertainment offerings, clubs, shopping malls and value-for-money buys, ski and mountain resorts and so much more.
And not to forget that it’s highly competitive. A five night – six day all inclusive, accommodation in four-star hotel, programme can start from as low as a mere US$ 360.
Almaty is directly connected to Delhi via thrice weekly flights operated by Air Astana. Almaty welcomed around 33,000 Indian visitors in 2019. However, that number plummeted to 7,000 Indian arrivals in 2020 and a mere 5,000 in 2021, because of the halt in international travel and tourism following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic.
In India to attend SATTE 2022 and showcase Almaty to the Indian and international buyers, Izenay Dilara, Chief Specialist of Tourism Promotion Division, Tourism Department of Almaty City, expressed confidence that 2022 will mark the turnaround in tourist arrival to Almaty.
Dilara said that India is one of the fastest growing outbound tourism source market and a new destination for Almaty that they want to develop more and grow arrivals. “At the same time, we are a new destination that we want to introduce to the Indian and the global market and attract tourists. Indians have been travelling to Thailand, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and European countries. They have not much explored Central Asia. Our tourism is just starting. We are value for money and there is so much to explore and enjoy in Almaty or for that matter across the country as well,” she stressed.
Commenting on the source market development initiatives for the Indian market, Izenay Dilara, Chief Specialist of Tourism Promotion Division, Tourism Department of Almaty City, said, “After Covid we are studying our promotion again for the Indian market. We have already done two road shows in Mumbai and Delhi. We have invited local tour companies, tour agencies, who are interested in inbound to Almaty. We have made destination presentations in order to address the awareness issues as well. Furthermore, we will do some fam. trips for local (Indian) tour companies as well as road shows. We are participating at SATTE, and we hope to be back for some other shows as well.”
In the last few years Almaty has been picking up in terms of finding itself increasingly on Indian travellers’ itineraries. Not only is Almaty much cheaper than Europe but also packs a tremendous punch as a destination. There is increasing MICE movement, particularly ‘Incentives’, from India to Almaty lately and it is only growing.
