Average spending by visitors from China during trips to Kazakhstan amounted to about 467,000 tenge, while for Russians this figure reached 161,000 tenge. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

A significant share of Chinese guests' expenses goes to international transport. This is evidenced by data from the Bureau of National Statistics (BNS).

Spending volume

According to the results of a sample survey of inbound visitors for January–July 2026, the total expenses of 763 surveyed guests from China amounted to 356.3 million tenge. Thus, on average, one person accounted for about 467,000 tenge.

For comparison, the expenses of 12,757 surveyed visitors from Russia reached 2.05 billion tenge. Per person, this is about 161,000 tenge, which is 2.9 times less than China's figure.

At the same time, Russians made up more than half of all survey participants. In total, the BNS surveyed 25,000 foreign visitors, of which 51% were from Russia. China's share was about 3%.

Structure of Chinese guests' expenses

The largest part of Chinese guests' expenses is related to international transport. They spent 238 million tenge on trips to Kazakhstan and back, or 66.8% of total expenses.

Another 41.1 million tenge went to accommodation, 34.9 million tenge to food and groceries, and 15.8 million tenge to purchases of goods. Expenses on transport within Kazakhstan amounted to 11.2 million tenge.

Structure of Russian visitors' expenses

The structure of Russian visitors' expenses differs noticeably. They spent 861.7 million tenge on international transport, or 42% of the total. Food and groceries accounted for 448.5 million tenge, purchases for 296.4 million tenge, and accommodation for 243.1 million tenge.

Thus, the significant difference between the average expenses of visitors from the two countries is largely explained by international transportation costs.

If this category is excluded, the average expenses of Chinese guests would be about 155,000 tenge, and those of Russians 93,000 tenge. The difference would shrink from 2.9 to 1.7 times.

At the same time, international transport expenses do not necessarily fully go to Kazakh companies, since part of the transportation may be carried out by foreign carriers.

Purpose and duration of trips

BNS data also show differences in the purposes of trips. Among the surveyed Chinese visitors, 358 people, or 46.9%, came to Kazakhstan for business and professional purposes. Another 405 people indicated personal purposes.

Among Russians, the share of business trips is significantly lower. Out of 12,757 surveyed, 2,376 people, or 18.6%, visited Kazakhstan for professional purposes. The remaining 10,381 people arrived for personal purposes.

The average length of stay also differed. Chinese visitors spent 2,540 nights in Kazakhstan, which corresponds to about 3.3 nights per person. For Russians, this figure was about 3.5 nights.

Thus, with a comparable length of stay, Chinese guests on average spent more money, and almost half of them visited Kazakhstan for business purposes.

Survey methodology

The BNS survey was conducted among non-residents upon departure from Kazakhstan — at airports, railway and bus stations, as well as at road checkpoints. In total, 25,001 people were surveyed. Their total expenses amounted to 4.88 billion tenge, of which about 2.4 billion tenge went to international transport. At the same time, the figures cited reflect the expenses of the sample survey participants, not of all foreigners who visited Kazakhstan in the seven months of 2026.

Earlier, Kursiv wrote that a top Chinese hotel chain is preparing to receive tourists in the center of Almaty.