Almaty’s Velvet Shymbulak Club took the service prize in Moscow on October 28, while the Almaty Mountain Cluster prepares 32 new cable car lines and a jump to 30,000 daily visitors.
Ski awards usually celebrate steel and concrete. New lifts, wider runs, bigger gondolas. This year in Moscow, judges handed a top prize to something far less photogenic: a loyalty programme.
Almaty’s Shymbulak won SKI BUSINESS AWARDS 2026 for its Velvet Shymbulak Club, and the reasoning behind that choice tells you where Central Asia’s benchmark resort is heading.
On October 28, at the Tourist Territories Forum in Moscow, Shymbulak took the award in a category honouring new service standards and guest-experience development.
SteppeNews.kz reported the win on October 30, 2026, citing the Almaty city tourism department. CentralAsia.media, Caravan and BAQ.KZ all confirmed it, describing a formal ceremony within the Forum of Tourist Territories framework in the Russian capital.
Resort management confirmed this is Shymbulak’s fifth win at these awards, across 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026 — sustained international recognition of its operations rather than a one-off acknowledgement.
Why Judges Chose a Loyalty Club Over New Lifts
Velvet Shymbulak Club received the honour specifically for advancing tourist services and introducing new hospitality standards. Judges saw operational quality, not just hardware investment, at the Kazakh resort.
That distinction matters to you as a visitor. Lifts are easy to photograph and easy to copy. Consistent service and a membership that rewards returning guests are harder to fake.
The Almaty Mountain Cluster: 32 Cable Cars, 151 Kilometres
The award lands in the middle of a construction programme. The Almaty Mountain Cluster is a multi-gorge master plan updating infrastructure across the Shymbulak, Butakovka and Kimasar valleys.
Under the cluster plan, developers intend to add 32 new cable car lines across the region and extend total groomed ski trail length to 151 kilometres. Combined daily visitor capacity across the resorts is meant to rise from roughly 6,000 to 30,000 people.
The point is not only more terrain. The wider programme is designed to enable year-round mountain tourism, reduce crowding on existing slopes, and improve access for both Almaty residents and international visitors.
Shymbulak is moving first. By the end of 2026, the resort alone expects to open two additional cable car systems and expand its skiable terrain, according to the Almaty tourism department.
Shymbulak’s repeated appearance at SKI BUSINESS AWARDS underlines its position as Central Asia’s benchmark ski destination, and that carries commercial weight. Kazakhstan is competing with Georgia’s Gudauri and Uzbekistan’s emerging Amirsoy-Beldersoy corridor for the broader regional ski market.
One gap stands out. As of October 30, 2026, no English-language news outlet had reported the award. That leaves the story under-covered in the Anglophone index, and potentially high-value for an English-language ski audience looking for original Central Asian coverage.
Here is the practical read. If you are weighing a Central Asia ski trip, Shymbulak has five international service awards behind it, two more cable cars due by the end of 2026, and a master plan aimed at taking crowding off the slopes. Watch the lift openings before you book.