Tourism Malaysia is participating in the 20th Kazakhstan International Tourism Fair (KITF) 2022, which has been held since 2001. The exhibition starts from 20 to 22 April 2022 to serve as a wide-ranging professional platform for the tourism industry of the whole Central Asian Region.

The three-day fair in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan highlights the promotion of the full reopening of Malaysia's borders for the first time after nearly two years of COVID-19 pandemic-related closures. As Malaysia begins to transition into an endemic phase starting 1 April 2022, it is targeting to attract 2 million international tourist arrivals this year with more than RM8.6 billion in tourism receipts. Joining Tourism Malaysia at the Malaysian Pavilion are JPS Travel & Tours and Embassy Alliance Travel.

Prior to the pandemic, Kazakhstan is one of the main generating markets from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. In 2019, Kazakhstan has brought in a total of 18,138 tourists to Malaysia, which was an increase of 10.2% compared to 13,861 tourists in 2018. Tourism Malaysia's participation is a continuous effort to promote and inform the market that Malaysia is now ready to welcome back tourists from CIS countries.

“We hope that our participation in this exhibition will trigger back the interest of the tourists from CIS to Malaysia. At the same time, we welcome cooperation from all agents to market Malaysia and urge the CIS-based airlines to resume the scheduled flights and to initiate the charter flights to Malaysia,” said Dato’ Hj. Zainuddin B. Abdul Wahab, the Director General of Tourism Malaysia.