Kazakhstan will invest $1.5 billion in the development of tourism and creating a positive image of the ex-Soviet republic, which is perhaps best known in the West for the comic character Borat.
"The 2011 Asian Winter Games will become one of the main stages in the promotion of the country. $1.5 billion will be invested in image projects," the country's sports and tourism chief Nurlan Zhanibek said on Tuesday at a tourism presentation in New York.
Astana will also bid for the 2030 Winter Olympic Games, he said.
Kazakhstan saw 800,000 foreign tourists in 2009, he added.
"Two or three years ago we launched a PR campaign in Germany and now we see a growing number of German tourists," Zhanibek noted.
Kazakhstan's global image was dealt a serious blow in 2006 with the release of the Hollywood comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which portrayed its princicipal character, a Kazakh called Borat, as backward, incestuous, and racist.
NEW YORK, November 9 (RIA Novosti)
