Foreign bloggers compare Mangystau to Dune: Bozzhyra becomes a global tourist attraction

An Instagram blogger @_mjbarz posted a photo from the Bozzhyra tract with a caption that he was on location for the set  of the Dune 4. The post received over 5,000 likes within just a few days.

He is not an influencer, but an ordinary traveller who had previously seen images of Mangystau on social media and came to the region to experience its landscapes firsthand

The chalk formations of Bozzhyra resemble the sets of a science-fiction film about a desert planet, and such comparisons regularly appear on social media.

At the same time, a considerable number of influencers visit Mangystau with drones. One American content creator who filmed the same rock formations from the air described the location as “fantastic”; the post received nearly 47,000 likes and almost 900 reposts.

Another tourist and videographer compared Bozzhyra to the Moon.

Dune was not  fiilmed here - but Jackie Chan visited

Nevertheless, Hollywood has made its way to Bozzhyra. In June 2026, filming of Armour of God 4: Ultimatum, starring Jackie Chan, took place at the tract. A 35-member production crew worked at the location for almost a week.

The opening ceremony for the filming in Mangystau was marked by director Robert Kune and Jackie Chan themselves symbolically breaking a film slate, in keeping with a long-standing cinematic tradition. The principal scenes of the film were shot in Bozzhyra, while part of the production also took place in Almaty and the surrounding region.

Why are bloggers travelling here in the first place?

The post featuring a UFO emoji attracted such a high level of engagement not only because of the striking image. The author said that he had revisited his archive of old photographs from Kazakhstan and edited, for the first time, images that he had previously set aside for some reason. He described the trip as one of his favourite travel experiences of his life.

What has already been built at the site

Construction of the Bozzhyra Visitor Centre was completed as early as April 2026, with its official opening scheduled for July–August of the same year. At the same time, a second visitor centre is being developed at the site, together with an ethno-café designed to accommodate a larger volume of tourist traffic.

Investment in Mangystau’s tourism infrastructure will continue. From 2026 to 2029, three separate projects are planned for the Bozzhyra destination, with a total investment of 17.5 bln tenge. These projects include the Tary Ethnocentre, representing a Kazakhstani brand.

Overall, 17 tourism projects are expected to be launched in the region by 2029. Some of these projects are being financed as part of the region’s broader investment programme, which provides for more than 7 trln tenge in investment between 2026 and 2032.