The year 2009 is remarkable for the tourism industry of Kazakhstan because Astana (for the first time ever in the CIS countries) will become a venue for the 18th General Assembly of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)

This event is held every two years and is the world’s biggest tourism forum. More than 1,000 delegates from 154 countries will take part in it. Kazakhstan aims to become a tourism hub in the Central Asian region and make the tourism industry a high-yield economic sector. A UNWTO member since 1993 and an active participant of various international exhibitions, Kazakhstan has turned out to be a new tourism destination with a local flavour, primeval natural reserves and a country open for the dialogue and business. The General Assembly in Astana will become a crucial point and allow for a fast development of the national tourism industry by drawing international investment. In this respect, the importance of Astana Leisure 2009 – included in the Assembly agenda  is difficult to overestimate.

Astana Leisure 2009 is also remarkable because this year, the exhibition will be held at a new place, the recently finished “Korme” Exhibition Centre which meets every international standard for holding an expo event. The exhibition dates are 6-8 October. Its organisers – Ministry for Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan exhibition company Iteca – are sure that regions of Kazakhstan will be represented broadly at the exhibition: hotels, retreat centres and health resorts will be represented both as separate exhibits and by stands of oblast akimats and city administrations of Astana and Almaty. The visitors will be able to make a virtual tour of magnificent slopes of the Trans-Ili Alatau Range, the land of blue lakes, the Great Steppe, the Saki burial mounds, the Singing Sand Dunes and mediaeval architectural sites. As far as international exhibitors are concerned, apart from traditional national stands, invitees include travel firms and tour operators servicing major tourist destinations.

Exhibition sections: Regional Travel Organisations; Tour Operators and Travel Agencies; Airlines and Air Agencies; Hotels, Retreat Centres, Health Resorts; Air Ticket Reservation and Sales; Transportation Agencies; Trade Associations and Organisations; Insurance and Banking Services in Tourism; Information Technologies in Tourism; Environmental.

The Astana Leisure 2009 agenda includes a busy schedule of workshops by exhibitors where new offers will be presented for the autumn and winter tourist seasons.