On April 28-29, 2023, the Al-Farabi KazNU hosted the Tourism Olympiad among students studying in the specialty "6B11101 - Tourism", which brought together participants from different cities of our country. 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 purpose of the Olympiad is to draw the attention of students to various aspects of tourism and show how important professional training is for a successful career in this field. Participants were tested for knowledge of the basic principles of organizing tourism activities, as well as for the ability to work with tourist maps and other tools.

The Olympics was held 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, passing a tourist route using the technique of overcoming the distance using active skills in sports tourism.

Tourism Olympiad, held at Al-Farabi KazNU, is a vivid example of how universities can support students' interest in promising and popular areas of professional activity. It also allows participants to show their knowledge and skills in the field of tourism, gain valuable experience and expand the circle of professional contacts.

In addition, holding such events contributes to raising 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 can become leaders in this field in the future and bring fresh ideas to the tourism business.

Representatives from the tourism sector were invited to the jury of the Olympiad (director of the “Mocean travel” travel agency, Omar M.M.), travel bloggers (Suranchieva E.A., Dusebay A.T.), an instructor in sports tourism (master of sports in tourism, Vice-President of the Federation of Sports Tourism, Shesternin V.A.). Organizational sponsors of the Olympics were the tourist equipment rental companies “Tobe” and “Skadi”.

9 teams representing different educational institutions of the country took part in the Olympiad. In the course of a stubborn struggle and passing through two stages of the competition, the team "Edelweiss" (Narxoz University, Almaty) took the 1st place overall, the 2nd place was shared by the teams "Zhihankez" (KazNPU named after Abai, Almaty) and "Tengri" (PGU named after S. Toraigyrov, Pavlodar), 3rd place, taking into account equally earned points, was divided between four teams "Alatau" (International Kazakh-Chinese Language College), "Turan Barsy" (Turan University, Almaty), Adrenaline (UIB University, Almaty) and the Michelin team (SKSU named after M. Auezov, Shymkent). The team "White Tiger" (ATU, Almaty) was able to win the nomination "As the most united team" of the Olympiad. Team "Made in ZhasTour" (Al-Farabi KazNU, Almaty) competed out of competition, however, by the sum of points for two days of the competition, they managed to win the Grand Prix of the Olympiad with the highest total points for the competitions.