Which region of Kazakhstan has the most for tourists?

The index cannot say. It shows that Almaty Region has the most listed places and protected areas along with high search demand, at 99.7 out of 100. Turkistan is second at 65.5 and Akmola third at 62.7.

What is the difference between Almaty and Almaty Region?

They are separate units here. Almaty city has the highest demand, 60,680 searches a month, but only one major protected area and 15 listed places, so it ranks seventh. With demand counted without the logarithm it would rank second.

Does a low score mean a region has nothing to see?

No. The index measures list coverage, searches and protected areas. It says nothing about beauty, services or safety.

How is the index calculated?

It is the average of three shares of the maximum: number of places, the logarithm of demand, and number of reserves, national parks and rezervats. The result is multiplied by 100.

Kazakhstan Regions Tourism Index: 20 Regions Ranked

An open formula combines 200 places, search demand and 39 major protected areas across 17 regions and 3 cities. Almaty Region scores 99.7 out of 100 and stays first in every version of the calculation.

This tourism index of Kazakhstan’s regions answers a narrow question: where do listed places, search demand and major protected areas coincide? Almaty Region scores 99.7 out of 100, while West Kazakhstan scores 24. It is not a measure of quality, services or safety. If you are mapping a trip, read it as a guide to where you will find the most options in one area.

Tourism index of regions and cities, out of 100

Almaty Region 99.7
Turkistan Region 65.5
Akmola Region 62.7
Zhetysu Region 62.3
East Kazakhstan Region 58.8
Mangystau Region 58.2
Almaty city 52.8
Karaganda Region 50
Abai Region 49
Pavlodar Region 45.1
Kyzylorda Region 39.7
Zhambyl Region 39.1
North Kazakhstan Region 35.8
Kostanay Region 34.5
Astana city 33.7
Atyrau Region 31.8
Aktobe Region 29
Ulytau Region 27.9
Shymkent city 27.6
West Kazakhstan Region 24

Calculated from the 200-place list, Ubersuggest (28 Oct 2026) and Resolution No. 593

The ranking: 17 regions and 3 cities

The last column shows how far a region moves across five versions of the formula. The top three never leave the top five. Below them the spread varies, from a fixed 10th place for Pavlodar to 4–16 for North Kazakhstan.

#	Region	Places on the list	Demand, monthly	Protected areas: main (all)	Index	Rank range across 5 versions
1	Almaty Region	36	54,180	6 (12)	99.7	1
2	Turkistan Region	20	22,670	3 (8)	65.5	2–3
3	Akmola Region	11	22,090	4 (15)	62.7	2–5
4	Zhetysu Region	16	26,180	3 (8)	62.3	3–6
5	East Kazakhstan Region	14	15,330	3 (10)	58.8	5–6
6	Mangystau Region	19	16,950	2 (5)	58.2	6–7
7	Almaty city	15	60,680	1 (2)	52.8	2–9
8	Karaganda Region	8	5,180	3 (9)	50	7–9
9	Abai Region	8	3,810	3 (3)	49	8–13
10	Pavlodar Region	6	12,020	2 (5)	45.1	10
11	Kyzylorda Region	5	17,070	1 (3)	39.7	11–13
12	Zhambyl Region	9	4,080	1 (4)	39.1	11–12
13	North Kazakhstan Region	5	4,670	1 (17)	35.8	4–16
14	Kostanay Region	3	920	2 (5)	34.5	13–18
15	Astana city	7	8,010	0 (1)	33.7	14–19
16	Atyrau Region	3	2,320	1 (2)	31.8	11–17
17	Aktobe Region	4	670	1 (2)	29	15–20
18	Ulytau Region	3	650	1 (5)	27.9	16–19
19	Shymkent city	4	2,710	0 (0)	27.6	19–20
20	West Kazakhstan Region	4	130	1 (5)	24	15–20

Demand excludes queries with a second meaning. The figure in brackets counts all protected areas in Resolution No. 593, including sanctuaries, botanical gardens and natural monuments.

Illustration Engraving: a relief model of a large country on a table with small stacks of stones of unequal height on different regions, a researcher measuring with dividers

The formula, in full

Each region gets three inputs:

P is the number of places on our list of 200;
D is the sum of average monthly Russian-language searches for those places, without ambiguous queries;
O is the number of strict reserves, national parks and rezervats of republican significance.

Index = 100 × (P ÷ Pmax + log(1 + D) ÷ log(1 + Dmax) + O ÷ Omax) ÷ 3.

The maximums are 36 places, 60,680 searches and 6 areas. The logarithm stops one famous query from deciding everything: without it Almaty city comes second. Weights are equal because we have no grounds to rate one input above another. An area spanning two regions counts in each, which is why the regional total is 39.

What happens when you change the formula

We recalculated in four other ways: with all queries including ambiguous ones, with all 114 listed protected areas, without the logarithm, and with a geometric mean. First place never changes. Almaty, Turkistan and Akmola regions stay in the top five every time.

North Kazakhstan moves most: 13th in the base version, 4th if all protected areas count. That is arithmetic: 17 areas are listed for it, and more than half are small natural monuments, which is why the base version leaves them out. Atyrau rises to 11th if the query “акжайык”, 49,500, stays in, and West Kazakhstan to 15th if “сайгаки” stays in.

What it shows and what it misses

The three major cities need separate reading. Astana and Shymkent have no reserve, national park or rezervat, and Almaty has one. Part of this index is about nature, so compare cities mainly with each other.

Not verified yet We could not account for regional area, trips or visitor numbers: no consistent data by place exists. Each place has one region, so Lake Balkhash sits wholly in Karaganda and Altyn-Emel in Zhetysu, though the protected-area list also names Konaev. Kazakh and English queries are not in D.

Our editors chose the 200 places, so the index inherits that list’s biases: where the list is more detailed, P is higher. Search demand is not visitor numbers. Resolution No. 593 covers areas of republican significance, not local ones. Demand was exported from Ubersuggest on 28 October 2026.

For journalists: how to cite it

Safe wording: “In the charyn.kz index, built from the number of listed places, search demand and protected areas, the region ranks Nth of 20 (November 2026). The index does not rate the quality of tourism.” Avoid “the most touristic region” without that caveat.

Regional media can compare neighbours and see which of the three inputs holds a region back. Bloggers can use the table to find regions with several places close together.