Kazakhstan thanks Borat for boosting tourism
In hindsight, maybe Borat really did ‘make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan’ - tourism to the former Soviet republic has increased tenfold since the film was released.
Kazakhstan’s foreign minister thanked Sacha Baron Cohen’s character Borat on Monday for his 2006 film, which he said had attracted hordes of tourists to the country.
“I am grateful to ‘Borat’ for helping attract tourists to Kazakhstan,” Foreign Minister Yerzhan Kazykhanov told the Kazakh parliament, according to local news agencies. “With the release of this film, the number of visas issued by Kazakhstan grew tenfold.”
The public praise for Baron Cohen’s satirical movie marked something of an about-face for the Kazakh government, which initially reacted to the movie’s release in 2006 by forbidding its distribution in the country and blocking access to Baron Cohen’s website. Read more.
