“No one came to greet us in Kazakhstan“: tourism ministry responds to American blogger’s complaint

Tengrinews.kz — A video by American blogger Connor, who arrived in Kazakhstan in his own car, is being actively discussed on social media. According to him, the visit was supposedly arranged at the invitation of the Ministry of Tourism, but once he arrived, he was “forgotten.” The Ministry of Tourism and Sports commented on the situation.
What happened
An American blogger named Connor recorded a video about his trip to Kazakhstan, which has already gained tens of thousands of views and sparked active discussion. According to the foreign visitor, he had been planning the trip to Kazakhstan for several months and allegedly came at the invitation of the Ministry of Tourism. Expectations were high: after receiving a warm welcome in Kyrgyzstan, the traveler expected a similar level of hospitality in Kazakhstan.
However, according to him, once he arrived in the country, people forgot about him and stopped responding.

“Imagine being officially invited to a country. Spending weeks and months discussing plans, coordinating details, and then the day you show up, the tourism ministry forgot,” he said.













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As Connor wrote on his Instagram account, he had expected a ceremonial welcome at the border.

“Instead no one came to greet us and we were even interrogated about why we were entering the country which is pretty strange considering we were officially invited and told they knew we were coming,” he wrote.

What the ministry said
Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports officially denied the claim that Connor had been invited.

“The ministry conducts systematic work to invite foreign bloggers, tourism associations, and companies as part of group press and information tours; inviting individual private persons is not part of the ministry’s work. In the case of separate official requests, the ministry provides full support, but no such request from this blogger was received by the ministry,” the agency said.

At the same time, it was clarified that correspondence with the blogger had been conducted on behalf of the national company Kazakh Tourism. According to the company, the talks did not result in any concrete agreements.

“For its part, the national company Kazakh Tourism is ready to provide informational support and the necessary materials to help familiarize visitors with the country’s tourism potential,” the ministry concluded.