A part of the Soviet Union until the latter’s dissolution in 1991, the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan has recently taken several steps to promote its tourism industry and bring more international visitors to its territory.
As the ninth-largest country in the world, Kazakhstan is home to numerous vastly different landscapes and beautiful natural phenomena, such as the Caspian Sea, the Altai Mountains, the Valley of Balls, and multiple lakes and canyons.
As the data published by the Kazakh government shows that over 90% of the 7.5 million international tourists to Kazakhstan in 2024 came from either nearby Central Asian nations or Russia, their government is now taking steps to reach more Western tourists by scrapping visa requirements for citizens of multiple countries.
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At the end of July, the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs announced plans to open up visa-free travel to citizens of 56 countries for visits not surpassing 30 days per individual trip or 90 days across several entries in each 180-day period.
While the timeline for implementation has not yet been revealed, the list of passports includes EU members like France, Austria, Italy, Hungary and Germany among others along with the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Israel, Qatar, Chile and Australia.
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The Kazakh government has already implemented changes allowing citizens of India and Iran to visit the country visa-free for 14 days at a time or 42 days in a 180-day period while mutual efforts to improve relations with TĂĽrkiye led it to opening up to the latter’s citizens for visits of up to 90 days.
Turkish citizens were previously only allowed visits of up to 30 days.
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‘The goal is to create a favorable investment and tourism climate’
“The goal of adopting this draft is to develop closer cooperation with the Republic of TĂĽrkiye, to create a favorable investment and tourism climate in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and to boost economic diplomacy,” the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said in a statement on the agreement.
While the country has previously been fairly closed off to visitors from outside the Central Asian region, Kazakhstan shift in policy shows that it is choosing to prioritize tourism for its economic development strategy.
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In May 2025, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed a decree ordering his lawmakers to develop a framework in which American citizens can come to the country for 30 days without a visa. The government set the ambitious goal of bringing the total number of international visitors to 15.8 million and constructing 108 new hotels and 375 guest houses in different regions of the country within a couple of years; it is likely that Kazakhstan’s step toward opening up for travel was done to keep up with its fellow Central Asian neighbor.
Fellow former USSR member Belarus has in 2024 also taken similar steps by opening up to the 35 nations making up Europe’s Schengen zone but almost all Western countries continue to have it under the “do not travel” advisory over President Alexander Lukashenko’s facilitation of the war in Ukraine and collaboration with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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