Holidays in Kazakhstan are getting pricier faster than overall inflation: in June 2026, prices in the "Leisure and Culture" category rose 17.3% year-on-year, roughly 7 percentage points above the national inflation rate, reports the website infohub.kz.
Analysts at Energyprom note that sharp increases have been observed since 2023. Between 2017 and 2022, annual price growth ranged from 3.8% to 8.3%, but in the last three years it has hovered between 13.8% and 19%. They caution that the "Leisure and Culture" category includes hotel services, travel equipment, and other forms of entertainment, so the data do not directly reflect only the cost of tourist trips.
The "Organization of Comprehensive Recreation" category is rising even faster, with prices up 27.8% year-on-year and exceeding 30% in some regions. Despite this, domestic tourism continues to grow. In 2025, 10.1 million domestic tourists stayed in accommodation facilities, nearly a million more than the previous year. Their total spending reached 659.2 billion tenge, with transport accounting for 25.5%, food 20.8%, and accommodation 12.2%.
In response to rising prices, resorts are introducing new incentives. One example is the "Otan" tariff launched in 2026 by the Oi-Qaragai mountain resort, which offers Kazakh citizens a 20% discount on several services compared to foreign tourists. In the first quarter of 2026, accommodation facilities served nearly 2 million people, and the number of Kazakhs using domestic facilities rose 3.6%.
"International experience shows that special terms for local residents help support domestic demand, regulate occupancy of tourist facilities, and keep part of household spending within the national economy," analysts concluded.