What do international travellers look up in Kazakhstan most?

Taking the Latin-script query outside Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea, Baikonur and Shymbulak: about 109,520, 26,510 and 25,700 searches a month. Next come Charyn Canyon at 18,600 and Big Almaty Lake at 15,600.

Is Burabay unknown abroad?

The query “burabay” outside the country is small, about 1,600 a month. But the widely repeated 0.2 ratio divides a Latin query by a Cyrillic one. Within one spelling, the worldwide figure equals or exceeds the Kazakhstan figure.

Can I add shymbulak and chimbulak together?

No. Ubersuggest returns the same series for both, 40,500 a month with all 12 months identical. Adding them would double-count one estimate.

Which countries does the worldwide demand come from?

The export does not say. We only have the world total and the Kazakhstan part, so we write “outside Kazakhstan” and name no country.

Do people in Kazakhstan use Latin spelling?

Yes, sometimes more than Cyrillic: for Shymbulak, Big Almaty Lake, Kolsai and Kaindy the Latin query beats the Cyrillic one inside Kazakhstan. The data does not say who types them or why.

What Foreigners Search for in Kazakhstan vs Locals

The usual world-to-Kazakhstan ratio divides one spelling by another. Counted within one spelling, Burabay moves from 0.2 to 1.0 in Cyrillic and 2.2 in Latin script.

What foreigners search for in Kazakhstan can only be estimated, and the popular shortcut gets it wrong. We checked 20 places in four cells: Cyrillic and Latin script, Kazakhstan and the whole world. Shymbulak gets about 25,700 Latin-script searches a month outside the country, Burabay about 1,600, yet Burabay’s famous ×0.2 turns out to be an artefact.

Where international demand actually goes

The closest proxy for a foreign reader is the worldwide volume of a Latin-script query minus its volume inside Kazakhstan. It is rough: it subtracts rounded estimates, and Latin spelling is not limited to foreigners.

Latin-script query outside Kazakhstan: worldwide volume minus Kazakhstan volume, per month

Aral Sea 109,520
Baikonur 26,510
Shymbulak 25,700
Charyn Canyon 18,600
Big Almaty Lake 15,600
Kaindy 14,500
Lake Balkhash 13,800
Kolsai 12,400
Khan Tengri 11,620
Kok-Tobe 10,100
Altyn-Emel 5,720
Medeu 5,500

Difference of rounded Ubersuggest estimates, 5 Nov 2026

Far ahead are the Aral Sea and Baikonur, with almost all their Latin demand abroad, ×229.2 and ×45.9. Shymbulak comes third with 25,700. Then come Charyn, Big Almaty Lake, Kaindy, Balkhash and Kolsai. Five of these belong to one part of the country: Shymbulak to Almaty city, and Charyn, the lake, Kaindy and Kolsai to the Almaty Region.

Illustration Engraving: two groups of travellers side by side at a canyon viewpoint, a local family with a picnic and a car and a foreign pair with large rucksacks and a guidebook

Why the ×3.3 and ×0.2 stories mislead

The arithmetic holds: 40,500 ÷ 12,100 = 3.3 for Shymbulak, 27,100 ÷ 8,100 = 3.3 for Baikonur, 2,900 ÷ 14,800 = 0.2 for Burabay. But the top line is a Latin query worldwide and the bottom line is a Cyrillic query in Kazakhstan. Those are different phrases, typed by overlapping groups.

Burabay: the same "world to Kazakhstan" ratio counted three ways

Latin world ÷ Cyrillic KZ 0.2
Cyrillic world ÷ Cyrillic KZ 1
Latin world ÷ Latin KZ 2.2

Ubersuggest, 05.11.2026

“бурабай” in Cyrillic scores 14,800 both worldwide and in Kazakhstan. “burabay” in Latin script scores 2,900 worldwide, of which 1,300 is in Kazakhstan. Bayanaul follows suit: 0.06 when mixed, 1.2 and 2.3 within one spelling.

What locals search for: the same places, spelled two ways

Latin script is common inside the country. For “kok tobe”, 55% of worldwide demand comes from Kazakhstan itself; for “bozjyra” it is 72%, and for “burabay” 45%. A Latin query is therefore a poor stand-in for “foreigner”.

In four cases Latin beats Cyrillic inside Kazakhstan: Shymbulak 14,800 against 12,100, Big Almaty Lake 6,600 against 3,600, Kolsai 2,400 against 1,900, Kaindy 3,600 against 1,900. Counting Russian-language queries alone understates local demand for exactly these places.

Cyrillic behaves differently outside the country. Five places, Burabay among them, show equal world and Kazakhstan figures. For the Aral Sea the Cyrillic query adds 42,900 outside Kazakhstan, and for Baikonur 32,400.

The full four-cell table

Sorted by the Latin ratio. The last two columns stay within one spelling; the mixed ratio is shown so you can compare with figures published elsewhere, including our own seven-site study.

Place	Cyrillic query: Kazakhstan	worldwide	Latin query: Kazakhstan	worldwide	Mixed ratio (Latin world ÷ Cyrillic KZ)	Cyrillic: world ÷ KZ	Latin: world ÷ KZ
Aral Sea	6,600	49,500	480	110,000	16.7	7.5	229.2
Baikonur	8,100	40,500	590	27,100	3.3	5.0	45.9
Khan Tengri	4,400	8,100	480	12,100	2.8	1.8	25.2
Lake Balkhash	18,100	27,100	1,000	14,800	0.82	1.5	14.8
Altyn-Emel	2,400	2,400	880	6,600	2.8	1.0	7.5
Charyn Canyon	9,900	14,800	3,600	22,200	2.2	1.5	6.2
Kolsai	1,900	9,900	2,400	14,800	7.8	5.2	6.2
Kaindy	1,900	4,400	3,600	18,100	9.5	2.3	5.0
Tamgaly	720	720	90	390	0.54	1.0	4.3
Assy Plateau	2,900	2,900	390	1,600	0.55	1.0	4.1
Alakol	18,100	22,200	480	1,900	0.1	1.2	4.0
Issyk Lake	1,900	2,400	1,900	6,600	3.5	1.3	3.5
Big Almaty Lake	3,600	4,400	6,600	22,200	6.2	1.2	3.4
Shymbulak	12,100	14,800	14,800	40,500	3.3	1.2	2.7
Yasawi Mausoleum	3,600	4,400	720	1,900	0.53	1.2	2.6
Bayanaul	6,600	8,100	170	390	0.06	1.2	2.3
Burabay	14,800	14,800	1,300	2,900	0.2	1.0	2.2
Medeu	9,900	14,800	4,400	9,900	1.0	1.5	2.2
Kok-Tobe	14,800	14,800	12,100	22,200	1.5	1.0	1.8
Bozjyra	4,400	6,600	720	1,000	0.23	1.5	1.4

The median Latin ratio is 4.05, so a typical Latin query about a Kazakh place is typed about three times more often outside the country than inside. The lowest is Bozjyra at 1.4, the highest the Aral Sea at 229.2.

What the data leaves out

Not verified yet We could not confirm which countries worldwide demand comes from; the export gives only a total. Kazakh-language spellings were not counted either.

Who actually arrives is a question for border statistics, not search data: foreigners crossed into Kazakhstan 15.74 million times in 2025, and our page on arrivals to Kazakhstan by country breaks that down by citizenship.

Spelling rules are undocumented. “Shymbulak” and “chimbulak” return one series at 40,500. “Burabay” and “borovoe” are split, 2,900 and 1,300. “Charyn” alone gets 2,400 against 22,200 for the full phrase. The choice of phrase can move a result further than the gap between two places.

All figures are Ubersuggest estimates exported on 5 November 2026, averaged over 12 months and rounded by the service. Demand is not visits, and a query says nothing about whether someone plans to travel.

For journalists and bloggers: how to cite it

Safe wording: “The query ‘shymbulak’ gets about 40,500 searches a month worldwide and about 14,800 in Kazakhstan, according to Ubersuggest (November 2026, calculated by charyn.kz).” Avoid “foreigners search for Shymbulak 3.3 times more than Kazakhstanis”: that sentence divides two different phrases.

If you write for international readers, the table shows which spelling they use. Tourism offices can see which name carries interest abroad.