Almaty Travel Massive Panel Reveals Key Trends in Travel Tech Market in Kazakhstan + Networking Photos

Thanks to everyone who attended this month’s Kazakhstan Travel Tech Discussion hosted by Almaty Travel Massive at Royal Tulip Almaty on October 22nd. The event was part of the Central Asia: Digital Aviation conference which attracted hundreds of attendees from across Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Here’s a recap from our presentations with photos from our networking event (scroll down) — we hope readers find this article insightful and helpful to understand the trends and opportunities in Kazakhstan!

Meet our Travel Tech speakers

The session was moderated by Leonid Pustov, Travel Massive Almaty Director, and featured the following experts from the Kazakhstan travel tech and tourism industry:

• Maksat Tabylganov (Head of Halyk Travel, Halyk)
• Masha Michurina (Head of Air Tickets Distribution Team, My Agent Kazakhstan)
• Daurzhan Kopzhanov (Senior Marketing, Almaty Tourism Bureau)
• Yerkin Tikenov (Director, Incide Travel Research / Head of Commission, Public Council, JSC National Company Kazakh Tourism).

Meet our Kazakhstan Travel Tech Discussion Panel — Leonid Pusiov, Maksat Tabylganov, Maria Michurina, Daurzhan Kopzhanov, and Yerkin Tikenovl.

Kazakhstan Transportation Trends

The session was opened by Maksat Tabylganov, Head of Halyk Travel.

Halyk Travel is the first ecosystem service in the Halyk superapp, launched in 2020. In total, the Halyk application is used by 8 million people. Halyk Travel offers flights to scheduled and charter destinations, railway tickets in Kazakhstan, bus tickets in the CIS and outbound Tours.

Maksat shared the statistics of the public transportation segment and tour package market of Kazakhstan in 2024 shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Kazakhstan travel market key metrics in 2024

Sources: 1) Civil Aviation Committee/Ministry of Infrastructure Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan, IATA.com; 2) Kazinform, The Astana Times, eQonaq, wttc; 3) Touristik Kamkor Fund, Kompas, Zakon.kz

Key highlights of the Kazakhstan travel market:

• Kazakhstan’s travel market is entering its digital maturity – Over half of all bookings now start online, and the next phase is ecosystem integration – connecting finance, loyalty, and travel.
• Customer ownership is the new competition – Winning in travel today means not just selling a ticket, but owning the customer journey -before, during, and after the trip.
• Ecosystems are redefining the market – Halyk Travel’s integration into the Halyk super app bridges travel and finance, turning transactions into long-term relationships.
• Automation is the biggest gap in B2B – Many local agencies and hotels still operate manually. Digitization and API connectivity will drive the next growth wave.
• Data and personalization will define the winners – The future belongs to platforms that understand traveler behavior and can create smart, contextual offers in real time.
• Halyk Travel is building the foundation for the next decade – the goal is to make travel seamless, trusted, and financially rewarding - all within one national ecosystem.

Kazakhstan B2B Travel Trends

Maria Michurina, Head of Air Tickets Distribution Team at My Agent Kazakhstan, led the second presentation with an overview of the business-to-business (B2B) travel market in Kazakhstan.

My Agent KZ is an airline and rail tickets consolidator and b2b-tool for travel agencies. The official launch in Kazakhstan was in February 2024. There are 599 connected partners including major IATA agencies, travel agencies, tour operators and business travel agencies.

Maria shared her vision of trends in the b2b market of Kazakhstan.

• At the moment, b2c market is shifting toward marketplace-style distribution.
• Banks are increasingly adding travel as one of their product verticals, capturing a significant share of the retail (B2C) segment.
• The corporate sector still tends to rely on large traditional travel agencies to comply with travel policies.
• Smaller agencies serving their own client bases continue to meet VIP-service needs — both for individuals and corporate customers.
• Tour operators also maintain strong positions and are expanding their own content portfolios for clients.

Maria shared her vision of the requirements for the product of a b2b ticket provider from the local market.

• Content enrichment – Not just retransmission of GDS data, but also additional information that we still cannot reliably obtain from NDC;
• Virtual interlines – they have existed for a while, but whereas they used to be mainly a way to save money, now — when most airlines operate in different systems — they’ve become the only viable option for certain combinations.
• Standardization of airline inventory – we must ensure a consistent customer experience both for classical GDS airlines and for those distributed via less common PSS platforms such as Asman Air or Centrum Air.
• Improving SLA and customer experience – Thanks to AI, we can accelerate service handling and start selling through suppliers we previously avoided due to SLA limitations.

Thanks to our Paximizer for supporting our event

A big thanks to Paximizer and their team for sponsoring the session, and providing gifts to our speakers to thank them for sharing their industry insights.

Paximizer is a next-generation customer data platform built for the modern airline economy—connecting every moment of the passenger journey from booking to arrival. It unifies data across loyalty, check-in, and in-flight systems to deliver a single, intelligent view of each traveler. With seamless integrations across airline ecosystems (PSS, DCS, CRS, RMS, FFP) and alignment with IATA data standards and GDPR, Paximizer transforms raw data into actionable insight—helping airlines anticipate needs, personalize experiences, and capture more value from every flight.

👋 Stay connected with Travel Massive Almaty. Join our Telegram group and the Almaty Travel Massive to be notified of upcoming events and connect with other members. See you at our next event!