Kyrgyzstan hoping for increase in tourist numbers and revenues

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Travel agencies and Kyrgyz government’s Tourism Department are predicting a solid summer tourism season, citing a stable political situation that should encourage visitors.

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Travel agencies and Kyrgyz government’s Tourism Department are predicting a solid summer tourism season, citing a stable political situation that should encourage visitors.

“Everybody is preparing for [tourist] season,” government tourism specialist Mikhail Khalitov said. “Some performance indicators may improve over last year’s figures. For example, already today we are seeing an upsurge in the rate of construction of new boarding hotels resort hotels and guest houses.”

That is a welcome development, as the 2008 global financial crisis and the political turmoil of 2010 led to two consecutive lean years, 2009 and 2010.

In recent years, tourism has contributed about 4% of Kyrgyz GDP. More than half of tourists visiting Kyrgyzstan go to Lake Issyk-Kul, the world’s 10th largest by volume.

Higher standards needed

As tourists become more discerning, resorts are taking steps to provide better service, Meder Tilekmatov, general manager of Issyk-Kul Aurora, one of the largest sanatoria on the Issyk-Kul shore, told Central Asia Online.

Tatyana Sotnikova, owner of the Tatyana guest house on the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul, is expanding her business to better accommodate visitors.

“We’ve decided to build an additional room for three guests,” she said. “You can wait a long time for improvement – but it’s smarter to hope for the best and to stay ahead of competitors.”

Service providers are also training workers, Tilekmatov noted, as they’re aiming to bring the level of services more in line with international standards.

Indeed, about 1,160 workers, including waiters, cooks and guides, will undergo training at the Training Hotel, the country’s only hospitality school, this year, the school said.

“Although more and more foreign tourists have been visiting Lake Issyk-Kul every year, services have largely remained mediocre,” Chubak Omorov, a Tourism Department specialist, said. “On average, tourists spend €120 (9,048 KGS or US $166) a day here – less than they would if the level of service were higher.”

Ambitions for growth

Several changes have contributed to this year’s expectations for the tourism industry.

“It’s already clear that last year’s [introduction of] a visa-free regime for citizens from 44-odd countries was a clever move, since the number of tourists from [non-Soviet] countries has grown,” Khalitov said.

Last year, Kyrgyzstan attracted 65,000 tourists from outside the former Soviet Union, Yelena Kalashnikova, president of the Kyrgyz Tour Operators’ Association, said, and she expects more this year. The figure was 26,000 in 2012.

“The visa-free regime wasn’t the only reason for more tourists last year,” Khalitov said. “We scrapped the environmental check-point … on the Lake Issyk-Kul shore, eliminating traffic jams and speeding the way for motorists.”

The state, meanwhile, is looking to build on that success, Khalitov said.

Under orders from the prime minister, the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism has announced a strategy for 2014-2015 that calls for “providing access to reliable, appealing and high-quality information about Kyrgyzstan’s tourist resources.”

The ministry plans to hold a trade fair at Lake Issyk-Kul, and tourism industry leaders plan to attend trade conferences abroad to advertise their country’s attractions.

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Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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