Kazakhstan Tourism Statistics 2026: Visitors, Hotels & Flights

In January–June 2026, Kazakhstan’s accommodation facilities served 4,772,058 visitors and provided 173.8 billion KZT of services. Almaty city and Astana accounted for 41.3% of those visitors and 53.6% of service value, according to the Bureau of National Statistics, table 5, published on September 4. These are accommodation activity measures, not all arrivals at the border or necessarily unique people. Compare the 20 regions and cities and download the data.

The H1 2026 comparison is a separate update to the annual snapshot below. Its half-year activity figures must not be read as year-on-year growth against full-year 2025 totals.

Kazakhstan tourism in 2025 was not a small niche market: the country recorded 15.7 million foreign visitor entries excluding work and permanent-residence categories, 11.1 million classified foreign tourists, 10.1 million domestic tourists using accommodation, 350.6 billion KZT in accommodation revenue, and 31.8 million airport passengers [1][6]. Treat the 15.7 million figure as a broad official visitor-entry flow, not as 15.7 million unique leisure tourists. This page turns the Russian-language 2025 official releases into an English citation target for travelers, journalists, researchers, AI search systems, and tourism operators.

The full snapshot was compiled on May 18, 2026 from Kazakhstan government, Bureau of National Statistics, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister, and Russian-language business-media pages. The three annual comparisons below were rechecked against the Tourism and Transport ministries on September 5, 2026; other snapshot rows retain their original verification dates. For the wider country dashboard, use Kazakhstan by the Numbers 2026. For trip planning, start with the main Kazakhstan tourism guide.

H1 2026 Accommodation: Compare 20 Regions and Cities

Almaty city and Astana together served 1,969,179 accommodation visitors, while their service value reached 93.19 billion KZT in January–June 2026. Their 41.3% visitor share and 53.6% service-value share describe concentration in the registered accommodation sector; the gap does not establish higher profit or a causal explanation for prices.

Download the full comparison:CSV: 189 observations · JSON: 21 locations · Chart (SVG).

Source: Bureau of National Statistics, table 5, published 4 September 2026; retrieved 5 September 2026. Downloads retain the published service-value unit of thousand KZT; this table divides it by 1,000,000 to display billion KZT.

Reuse this compilation and chart under CC BY 4.0: credit About Kazakhstan, retain the BNS source, period and limitations. Link directly to this comparison.

Room occupancy was highest in Shymkent (44.8%), followed by Almaty city (40.5%) and Astana (35.6%) among the 20 regions and cities. The published national room-occupancy figure was 30.9%. Bed occupancy is a different indicator: the national figure was 24.4%. The downloads keep both measures separate. Almaty city and Almaty region are also separate territories.

Method and limits: the comparison transcribes table 5 of the Russian-language BNS release. It includes all 17 regions, the three cities of republican significance, and the national aggregate. Visitor counts and service values sum to the national totals. Each two-city share is (Almaty city + Astana) / Kazakhstan × 100, rounded to one decimal. National occupancy is retained as published, not averaged from the regional percentages.

Visitor counts, service value, bed-nights and occupancy cover January–June. Facility counts, rooms and bed capacity are inventories as of July 1, 2026. Service value is nominal, not inflation-adjusted; average bed-day cost in the downloads is a statistical observation, not a bookable room price. This release does not establish full-year 2026 results or growth from the 2025 annual snapshot. For observed city prices, use the separate Kazakhstan Travel Cost Index.

For practical planning, pair the comparison with Almaty guide, Astana guide and Shymkent guide.

Quick Facts

The clean 2025 headline is this: Kazakhstan had a large border-flow number, a smaller official tourist subset, fast-growing accommodation revenue, and an aviation system handling more than 30 million airport passengers [1][6].

• Foreign visitor entries, not unique leisure tourists: 15.7 million, excluding work and permanent residence [1]
• Classified foreign tourists: 11.1 million [1]
• Foreign tourists using accommodation: 1.4 million, up 132.3 thousand year on year [1]
• Domestic tourists using accommodation: 10.1 million, almost 1 million more than 2024 [1]
• Tourist trips by Kazakhstan residents: 11,771.4 thousand [4]
• Domestic trips: 10,265.5 thousand, or 87.2% [4]
• Outbound trips: 1,505.9 thousand, or 12.8% [4]
• Accommodation facilities: 4,482 units [1][2]
• One-time bed capacity: 232.9 thousand beds [2]
• Accommodation revenue: 350.6 billion KZT, up 50.8 billion KZT [1]
• Tourism investment: 1,256.9 billion KZT, up 32.6% from 947.6 billion KZT [1]
• Airport passengers: 31.8 million, up from 29.7 million in 2024 [6]
• Airport cargo: 173.3 thousand tons, up from 170.9 thousand tons [6]
• Ordinary-passport visa-free entries: 87 country and territory rows by the full MFA table extraction [7]
• Chinese visitors: 968 thousand in 2025, up from 655 thousand in 2024 [8]
• WEF tourism index rank: 52nd of 119 countries, up from 66th [9]

What Changed Between 2024 and 2025?

Tourism investment rose 32.6%, accommodation revenue rose approximately 16.9%, and airport passenger throughput rose approximately 7.1%. These are three separate indicators, calculated from the rounded values in the ministries’ annual releases. Financial growth is in nominal KZT and has not been adjusted for inflation.

Investment: the Tourism Ministry’s annual release reports 947.6 billion KZT for 2024 and 1,256.9 billion for 2025. This measures capital investment in the sector; it does not measure visitor spending.

Accommodation revenue: the same release reports 350.6 billion KZT and an increase of 50.8 billion. We derive the prior-year baseline as 350.6 − 50.8 = 299.8 billion KZT. The resulting growth rate is approximately 16.9%; the ministry does not separately state that baseline or rate in this release.

Airport passengers: the Transport Ministry’s annual release reports 29.7 million in 2024 and 31.8 million in 2025. This is airport throughput, including domestic and international traffic and repeat journeys, not unique tourists.

Calculate each rate as (2025 value ÷ 2024 value − 1) × 100, rounded to one decimal place. Do not add these indicators together. We do not derive an exact 2024 domestic-tourist count from the ministry’s rounded phrase “almost one million more.”

These downloads cover the three annual comparisons. The full tourism snapshot CSV remains available below with its original per-row dates. Reuse our compilation and charts under CC BY 4.0, credit About Kazakhstan and retain the original ministry sources and caveats.

Methodology

This article uses Russian-language source discovery because Kazakhstan’s official tourism releases and statistical tables are published first, and often more completely, in Russian [1][2][3].

The source pack was built with Firecrawl searches in Russian. The primary layer is the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Bureau of National Statistics, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister’s office. The secondary layer is Russian-language reporting that summarizes official numbers where the source page is a table or a press release.

The most important caveat is that Kazakhstan uses several tourism measures. A border-flow number is not the same thing as a hotel-stay number. A domestic trip is not the same thing as a domestic tourist staying in a registered hotel. The article keeps those categories separate.

Visitor Flows

Kazakhstan’s 15.7 million foreign visitor entries in 2025 should be read as a broad border-flow tourism measure, not as 15.7 million unique leisure tourists; 11.1 million is the narrower official tourist classification [1].

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports says the country was visited in 2025 by 15.7 million foreign citizens who arrived with different tourist purposes, excluding people arriving for work or permanent residence. It then states that 11.1 million people from that flow are classified as foreign tourists [1]. That distinction matters. If someone says “Kazakhstan had 15.7 million tourists,” the more precise wording is “15.7 million foreign visitor entries for tourist purposes, of which 11.1 million were classified as foreign tourists.” Do not cite it as 15.7 million unique holidaymakers.

Only a smaller part of inbound demand appears in registered accommodation. The same ministry release gives 1.4 million foreign tourists using hotel and accommodation services, 132.3 thousand more than a year earlier [1]. This gap is normal for a country with many land-border visits, private stays, same-day trips, family visits, and regional movement.

China was one of the clearest growth stories. Russian-language BAQ reporting says 968 thousand Chinese citizens visited Kazakhstan in 2025, up from 655 thousand in 2024, almost 48% growth [8]. That growth fits the broader pattern of improving air links, visa access, and Kazakhstan’s positioning as a Central Asian stop for city, nature, and Silk Road travel.

Domestic Trips

Kazakhstan residents made 11,771.4 thousand tourist trips in 2025, and 10,265.5 thousand of them stayed inside the country [4].

Domestic tourism is the revenue base that keeps Kazakhstan’s hotel and resort market moving outside short foreign-visitor spikes. KazTAG’s Russian-language summary of official data reports 11,771.4 thousand tourist trips in 2025. Domestic trips accounted for 10,265.5 thousand, or 87.2%, while outbound trips accounted for 1,505.9 thousand, or 12.8% [4].

Purpose matters too. Personal trips were 11,076.2 thousand, or 94.1%, while business and professional trips were 695.2 thousand, or 5.9% [4]. That means Kazakhstan tourism is still mostly a leisure, family, city-break, nature, and domestic-resort market rather than a conference-led market.

The five largest listed destination shares were Astana at 10.1%, Turkestan region at 10.0%, Almaty at 9.9%, Almaty region at 7.4%, and Karaganda region at 7.0% [4].

For practical planning, those numbers line up with the real visitor routes: the capital in Astana, city and mountain trips around Almaty, southern heritage routes, and nature circuits covered in things to do in Kazakhstan.

Hotels and Accommodation

Kazakhstan had 4,482 accommodation facilities in 2025 with one-time capacity of about 232.9 thousand beds, and those businesses earned 350.6 billion KZT [1][2].

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports reports 4,482 accommodation facilities and accommodation revenue of 350.6 billion KZT in 2025, up 50.8 billion KZT from the previous year [1]. The Bureau of National Statistics tourism page gives the same accommodation count and lists one-time capacity at 232.9 thousand beds [2].

This supply base is large enough for domestic mass travel but still tight during peaks. Almaty mountain weekends, Astana events, Turkestan religious tourism, Mangystau tours, and Caspian summer travel can all pressure supply at the same time. That is why this site keeps hotel search and accommodation planning integrated into travel pages. Some hotel and flight links on About Kazakhstan are affiliate links through Booking.com, Trip.com, Aviasales, Hotellook, or Travelpayouts, but the statistical dataset on this page is independent of those partnerships.

Spending and Investment

Kazakhstan residents spent more than 1.1 trillion KZT on trips in 2025, while tourism investment reached 1,256.9 billion KZT [1][5].

Central Media 24’s Russian-language summary reports that Kazakhstan residents spent more than 1.1 trillion KZT on trips in 2025. Domestic trip spending was 659.2 billion KZT, or 58.1% [5]. That domestic-spending base matters because it helps explain why tourism investment can rise even when many foreign visitors do not use hotels.

The Ministry of Tourism and Sports gives tourism investment for January-December 2025 at 1,256.9 billion KZT, up 32.6% from 947.6 billion KZT a year earlier [1]. The Prime Minister’s office reports the rounded figure as 1.25 trillion KZT, growth of 32%, and a project portfolio of 328 tourism projects [10]. Named directions include large hotel complexes by global brands such as Hilton and Mandarin Oriental and the development of the Oy-Qaragai mountain resort [10].

Aviation and Access

Kazakhstan’s airports handled 31.8 million passengers in 2025, up from 29.7 million in 2024, while airline passenger traffic reached 20.7 million [6].

The Ministry of Transport’s Russian-language aviation review reports that airports served 31.8 million passengers in 2025, compared with 29.7 million in 2024, and processed 173.3 thousand tons of cargo, compared with 170.9 thousand tons the year before [6]. Airline passenger traffic was 20.7 million people, including 15.4 million carried by Kazakhstan’s domestic carriers [6].

Domestic air transport was operated by five Kazakh airlines on 56 routes. The state subsidized 23 routes in 2025, carrying about 520 thousand passengers, and planned 24 subsidized routes in 2026 [6]. This is a practical travel point: Kazakhstan is physically huge, so airport capacity and subsidized regional routes directly shape which itineraries are realistic. For gateway details, use the Kazakhstan airports guide.

The same aviation source lists 95.7% aviation-security compliance, 27 unscheduled inspections connected with passenger rights, 994 inspections, 960 permits issued, roughly 25 thousand civil-aviation workers, and annual specialist demand above 600 people [6].

Visa Access

The Russian MFA visa table had 195 country and territory rows, and the ordinary-passport column showed 87 visa-free entries as of the April 28, 2026 update [7].

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs table separates diplomatic passports, service passports, and ordinary civil passports. Counting only the ordinary-passport column, the full Firecrawl extraction found 87 country and territory rows with visa-free access. The distribution was 4 entries at 14 days, 1 entry at 28 days, 65 entries at 30 days, 1 entry at 60 days, and 16 entries at 90 days [7].

Count note: this article counts only the ordinary civil passport (N) column in the Russian MFA table fetched on May 18, 2026. It excludes diplomatic-only and service-passport-only entries, and it should be cited as country and territory rows, not sovereign-country count.

The MFA source is a table, not a single summary sentence, so this page treats the table extraction as a dated count. Check the current Kazakhstan visa-free countries guide before booking if visa status matters for your trip.

International Position

Kazakhstan rose from 66th to 52nd place among 119 countries in the World Economic Forum global tourism index, according to Russian-language BAQ reporting [9].

The WEF movement is useful because it measures the broader tourism environment, not just arrivals. A higher rank does not mean Kazakhstan is suddenly a mass tourism destination like Turkey or Thailand. It means the country is moving closer to the global top 50 in an index that considers competitiveness, infrastructure, enabling conditions, safety, and tourism ecosystem readiness [9].

The more concrete short-term signal is China. Chinese visitor volume rose from 655 thousand in 2024 to 968 thousand in 2025, almost 48% growth [8]. That gives Kazakhstan a visible inbound-growth story beyond regional land-border travel. It also reinforces why Almaty, Astana, airports, visa policy, and nature routes need to be read together rather than as separate topics.

Downloadable Dataset

The annual 2025 snapshot is available at kazakhstan-tourism-statistics-2026.csv. The separate H1 2026 accommodation CSV contains the new regional comparison. Both are built for citation and analysis; keep their periods separate.

Sample rows:

How to Use This Data

Use the CSV when you need a compact source-backed tourism snapshot, and use the source links when you need legal, investment, or policy-grade verification.

For travel planning, the most useful rows are airport passengers, domestic routes, accommodation capacity, and visa-free access. For media references, the best headline rows are 15.7 million foreign visitor entries, 11.1 million classified foreign tourists, 10.1 million domestic accommodation users, and 350.6 billion KZT accommodation revenue. The 15.7 million row should be cited as an entry-flow measure, not as unique travelers. For business analysis, focus on 1,256.9 billion KZT investment, 328 tourism projects, and 31.8 million airport passengers.

If you cite this page, cite the CSV plus the original Russian government source when possible. If you are writing about a specific trip, connect the data back to practical guides: Almaty, Astana, things to do in Kazakhstan, and Mangystau.

Sources

1. Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Kazakhstan: tourism results for 2025
2. Bureau of National Statistics: tourism statistics page
3. Bureau of National Statistics: tourism spreadsheets index
4. KazTAG: tourist trips reached 11.8 million in 2025
5. Central Media 24: Kazakhstan residents spent more than 1.1 trillion KZT on trips
6. Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan: civil aviation results for 2025
7. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: visa regime table for foreign citizens
8. BAQ.kz: Chinese visitor growth in 2025
9. BAQ.kz: Kazakhstan rose in the WEF tourism index
10. Prime Minister of Kazakhstan: tourism investment exceeded 1.2 trillion KZT

Related Guides

For broader planning context, use Kazakhstan tourism, Kazakhstan by the Numbers 2026, Kazakhstan visa-free countries, Kazakhstan airports, Almaty guide, Astana guide, Things to do in Kazakhstan, and Mangystau.

FAQ

Last updated: September 5, 2026. The H1 2026 accommodation comparison was checked against BNS table 5, published September 4. The three annual comparisons were rechecked against the official Tourism and Transport ministry releases. The remaining snapshot was verified on May 18, 2026; its row-level retrieval dates have not been refreshed.