Looks like Borat is having quite an effect on Kazakhstan tourism:

Post Borat Occurrences:
·Air Astana, the national airline, has added a third weekly flight from the UK.

·Major international chains, including Radisson SAS, have opened slick new hotels in Almaty and Astana.

·There is even talk from recent Kazakhstan visitors, that the country does indeed have the kind of scenery tipsters told Jaunted about way back when.

Oh, and of course, you travelers to Kazakhstan are treated to the kind of quirkiness they are looking for:

At a traditional Kazakh dinner party, the highest-ranking guest is always served a sheep's head -- the least important gets one of the creature's cervical vertebra.

We so called this.  Not the sheep's head thing, but they whole Kazakhstan tourism blowing up thing.

Maybe now the country can re-open borat.kz.

[Photo: irina slutsky]

Related Stories:
· Borat coverage [Jaunted]
· Kazakhstan coverage [Jaunted]
· Borat Boom [The Sun]
]]> markj 2007-03-05T10:46:50-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/1/31/124258/836
It's official: President Nursultan Nazarbayev, no longer busy vogueing for his country's tourism commercials, has passed a law requiring all casinos to be located in one of two approved cities: Kapchagai or Shchuchinsk. Kazakhstan is gambling crazed, and though the move reads like a negative blow at first, it could draw in some major dough. Kazakh officials hope to turn the cities into tourist draws, and major investments have been proposed by Chinese companies. Kapchagai could well turn into the Las Vegas of Kazakhstan (that's where the largest Chinese-proposed complex would be based) and Shchuchinsk its Atlantic City--not a bad deal, considering we feel far more comfortable at least trying to pronounce Kapchagai.

Kapchagai is close to Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city and former capital. We've never really felt compelled to visit Macau, but should Kapchagai turn into something better, you might be surprised to learn that you'd be able to reach it fairly easily. Almaty airport is served by several international airlines, including Turkish, KLM, and Asiana and Lufthansa, in addition to those with more highly questionable safety. Start saving those tenge!

[Photo: NYT via IHT]

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· Kazakhstan gambles on casinos [IHT]]]> djk 2007-01-31T12:42:58-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2006/9/7/1603/46357

Today, New York Times scribe Sharon Waxman analyzes the hell out of Borat.

She starts her article describing a few quintessential Borat scenes, that if your read between the lines, appear to have "induced squirming".  However, as the article concludes you get the feeling that even Waxman had a good laugh at a racialist joke or two, thanks to Borat's Kaufman like antics.

In the story we learn a bit more about Kazakhstan, through Borat of course:

·   Borat is not explicitly Muslim, but Kazakhstan has a large Sunni Muslim population along with a sizable contingent of Orthodox Christians.

·   During the shoot Fox ignored numerous protests from the Kazakh Embassy in Washington, whose officials were concerned about the depiction of their country as prejudiced.

We still predict that Kazahkastan will see a spike in tourist interest around the time the movie debuts (Novemember 3rd).

Oh, and Sharon, for the record, Ali G is not a "vaguely Muslim British idiot" he is a black British idiot.  See above clip for clarification.

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·   Equal-Opportunity Offender Plays Anti-Semitism for Laughs [NY Times]]]> markj 2006-09-07T16:00:03-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/