One of the country's most promising tourism clusters, the Katon—Karagai district, is developing in Eastern Kazakhstan. In 2025 alone, it is planned to receive more than 200,000 tourists (an increase of 25%). This was announced by Akim of the Katon-Karagai district Daniyar Dyusembayev at a briefing in the RSK East Kazakhstan region.

To date, 97 tourist facilities operate in the district: a sanatorium, hotels, recreation centers, pantotherapy clinics, campsites, ethnoauly, as well as tourist houses on the territory of the National Natural Park. The total one-time capacity is 2,062 seats.

In addition, 10 tourist routes and 4 sightseeing trails with a length of about 674 km are actively developing.

A major breakthrough in logistics was the start of construction of a new airport. According to the akim of the district, it is planned to open domestic flights to Astana, Almaty, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semey, as well as international routes to China (Kanas) and Mongolia (Bayan-Ulgiy).

In 2025, 5 major investment projects are being implemented in Katon-Karagai district. Among them:

* construction of an international hotel complex "Wellness Resort" in the village of Topkain (8.8 billion tenge),
* expansion of the Verkh-Katun pantotherapy center in Aksharbak village (400 million tenge),
* construction of the Altay Resort resort complex in the village of Arshaty (2 billion tenge),
* construction of a restaurant on the territory of the MuzTau eco-hotel in the village of Uryl (200 million tenge),
* construction of the tourist complex "ALTAY TERRA RESORT" in the village of Katon-Karagai (500 million tenge).

Katon-Karagai District is actively involved in international cooperation: in May, a delegation from the East Kazakhstan Region visited the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China, where the parties discussed the launch of the Kanas-Markakol- Katon–Karagai tourist route and issues of integrating the tourism infrastructure of the two countries.

Work is also underway on branding the area — buildings and tourist facilities are designed in a single design code, a master plan is being developed with the participation of international experts (PKF Hospitality, Kazakh Tourism).

Source : https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/vko-katon-karagay/press/news/details/1028725?lang=kk