Finland displacing Egypt as New Year tour destination for Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan residents won't change their preferences when choosing New Year tours this year, Rashida Shaikenova, head of Tourism Association said, Tengrinews.kz reported, citing Interfax-Kazakhstan. “New Year tours don't differ from common autumn and winter tours. Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Hainan are quite popular destinations. There is a new destination: Finland,” Shaikenova said. “Finland is very good for family vacation. At the present time we are trying to overcome the opinion that Finland only means meeting Santa Clause for children. Finland offers excellent skiing resorts of all kinds. There are facilities for new skiers as well as very advanced ones,” Shaikenova added. Demand for these destinations very much depends on availability of chartered flights. “Every destination could become wide-scale and popular, when it has got a good transport links. We believe that popularity of destinations is closely linked to the availability of chartered flights, because they are much cheaper than regular flights,” Shaikenova said. Moreover, Kazakhstan citizens prefer traveling to visa-free countries. “All these destinations, except Finland provide simplified visa regimes. China provides a visa-free entry for Kazakhstan citizens during the tourist season. But only for Hainan visitors,” she said.