Al-Farabi KazNU hosted the annual Tourism Olympiad for the «ZhasTour» Cup

On April 26-27, 2024, the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University hosted the Tourism Olympics among students studying in the specialty “6B11101 - Tourism”, which brought together participants from different universities in Almaty and two teams from the South Kazakhstan University named after M. Auezov, Shymkent. The event was organized by the Department of Recreational Geography and Tourism of the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.

The goal of the Olympiad is to attract students' attention to various aspects of tourism and show how important professional training is for a successful career in this field. Participants were tested on their knowledge of the basic principles of organizing tourism activities, as well as their ability to work with tourist maps and other tools.

The Olympiad took place in two stages. In the first stage, the participants took part in a theory competition, and the second stage was organized in the format of a practical part, with a tourist passing the route using the technique of overcoming the distance using active skills in sports tourism.

The Tourism Olympiad held at KazNU is a striking example of how universities can support students’ interest in promising and in-demand areas of professional activity. It also allows participants to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the field of tourism, gain valuable experience and expand their circle of professional contacts.

In addition, holding such events helps to improve the level of education in the field of tourism and service, which is an important factor for the development of the tourism industry as a whole. Moreover, the Tourism Olympiad, organized by activists from the ZhasTour club, helps to identify talented students who in the future will be able to become leaders in this field and bring fresh ideas to the tourism business.

Representatives from the tourism sector (director of the travel agency “Zhastour Travel”, Medhat A.), travel bloggers (Adilbay B.S., Dusebay A.T.), an instructor in sports tourism (Master of Sports in Tourism, Vice-President of the Federation of Sports Tourism, Shesternin V.A.). The organizational sponsors of the Olympics were the «Tobe» tourist equipment rental company, the «Keremet Su SKE» Company with the «Samal» trademark, the «Double Tree by Hilton» hotel, the Almaty city Tourism Department and others.

13 teams representing different educational institutions of the country took part in the Olympics. During a stubborn struggle and passing through two stages of the competition, the overall team 1st place was taken by the “KazAST” team (Kazakh Academy of Tourism and Sports, Almaty), 2nd place was shared by the “Turan Barys” teams (Turan University, Almaty) and “Alga” (UIB University, Almaty), 3rd place was shared by the teams “Alatau” (International Kazakh-Chinese Language College), “TurNarkhoz” (NARXOZ University, Almaty) and “Liria” (NARXOZ University, Almaty) . The “ATU Travel” team (ATU, Almaty) was able to win the nomination “As the most united team” of the Olympics, the “QuzPu Tour” team (Kazakh National Women’s Pedagogical University, Almaty) was able to win the nomination “As the most erudite team” competition, the “Golden” team (South Kazakhstan University named after M. Auezov, Shymkent) was able to win the nomination, “As the most active team” of the Olympics, the “Everest” team (ALMAU-Almaty Management University, Almaty) was able to win the nomination , “As the most creative team” competition. The team “ZhasTour” and “KazNU” (Al-Farabi KazNU, Almaty) competed outside the competition, but based on the total points for two days of competition, they managed to win the Olympic Grand Prix with the highest total points for the competitions.