Borat, the spoof blundering reporter from Kazakhstan, actually boosted tourism in the central Asian country, a Kazakh tourism minister said.

Kenzhebay Satzhanov, deputy chairman in Kazakhstan`s tourism and sports ministry, told AFP that British comic Sacha Baron Cohen`s character had helped put the country on the map.

`It was free of charge advertising and lots of people want to come and see our country,` he said through a translator at the four-day annual World Travel Market tourism industry fair in London, which closes Thursday.

`The rise (in tourists was) maybe not so huge like we expected but in any case we saw interest.`

The 2006 smash hit film `Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan` offended some by portraying the country as full of backward quasi-mediaeval racists who drink horse urine.

Kazakhstan`s government was initially angered by the film, but its response softened amid the publicity it brought.

`The first glance was not of course positive, it cannot be because you see a lot of not so good things,` Satzhanov said.

`But then, after that, when we start seeing interest in our country, it was of course reflected better, it was positive.

`People, after looking at this film, they will like to come and see: `is it real, is it the same or not?` It helps to learn more about our country.

`Every year they organise a familiarisation trip for international journalists and they had around 15 trips and they could see by their eyes how the country is, is it like Borat told?

`This film was made in Romania, it`s a very poor country.`

Satzhanov said Borat had still not taken up his invite to visit Kazakhstan.

The country`s three major tourist development projects -- the completely new Aktau City beach resort on the Caspian Sea coast, Borovoye and Kapchagay lake -- were unaffected by the global financial downturn, Satzhanov said.

`The result of six months` statistics showed that inbound tourism grew by 13 percent,` he said.

`At the moment, no problem.`