Almaty awarded World Craft City status
On October 5, Almaty was officially designated as a World Craft City by the World Crafts Council, recognizing the city’s role in preserving cultural heritage and developing artisanal traditions, Kazinform News Agency reports.
The announcement was made during a ceremony held as part of ALA CRAFT 2025, which opened on October 4 in front of the Palace of the Republic. The festival brought together more than 100 artisans from Kazakhstan, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States.
According to Galiya Tokseitova, head of Almaty’s Tourism Department, the new status will support the development of the city’s creative economy and promote local crafts as an economic resource.
Jude van der Merwe, President of the Asia-Pacific Region of the World Crafts Council, stated that the decision recognizes Almaty’s contribution to the growth of crafts and international cultural exchange.
In the first half of 2025, 1.14 million tourists visited Almaty, including 323,000 foreign visitors.
During the festival, Kazakh strongman Sergey Tsyryulnikov, a four-time world record holder, set a new Global Book of Records mark by bending nine horseshoes in one minute, surpassing the previous record of three.
Earlier, Kazinform reported that the Almaty City Administration allocated 12.2 billion tenge from the local budget for the creation of the Children’s Science Museum, which will be the first of its kind in the CIS region.