Astana EXPO 2017 CEO called to apply Georgia's experience in tourism

"Even New York Times included Georgia in the list of 50 most-recommended tourism destinations in 2016. The population of Georgia is at least 5 mln people while the number of tourists last year exceeded 2 mln. As for our country, 70,000 tourists only visited Kazakhstan in 2015," said Yessimov at the 3rd session of the Public Council for EXPO-2017 Organization.

In his opinion, such successful development of tourism in Georgia is a result of effective activity of a special governmental structure - the National Tourism Administration.

As Yessimov reminded, amid the global crisis, tourism sector proved to be the most stable one in the world.

"I was in Madrid in June and met there with the representatives of major tourist organizations. Tourism comprises 13% of Spain's GDP or 6% of the global tourism. Tourism is an integral part of these countries' economies. Our objective is to make EXPO push tourism development. As per data provided by tour operators, only 70,000 people visited Kazakhsttan last year. It is a very little indicator," he stressed.

Citizens of the CIS countries comprise a lion share of the tourists visiting Kazakhstan. Most of them are labour migrants.

"6.4mln foreigners visited Kazakhstan last year. 90% of them are the citizens of the CIS states, but they are mostly  businessmen, labour migrants, participants of various conferences etc. The real number of tourists is 70,000 only. As you see, this is a rich body and there are great opportunities for our economy," Yessimov said addressing the meeting participants.

According to him, around 300,000-400,000 tourists are expected to visit EXPO 2017.