INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GLOBAL IDEAS: VOL. 2 (2014, JUNE)
Development of Tourism in the Republic of Kazakhstan Dr. Soultana Tania Kapiki Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Greece
[email protected] Rakhmetulina Zhibek S. Amanzholov East Kazakhstan State University, Kazakhstan
[email protected] Nurgaliyeva Aizhan, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki
[email protected] Abstract This paper makes a brief reference to the comparative advantages of the global tourism market and highlights the problems towards the stable development of tourism in Kazakhstan. The country is rich in biological, cultural and natural resources and has a diverse climate, which contribute in the development of tourism enterprises. As it is widely known tourism enterprises is a highly profitable sector of economic activity. Therefore, one of the priority directions of the Kazakh economy should be the development of the lodging industry with emphasis on the creation of tourism clusters. Tourism clusters can help the enterprises to improve the offered services to tourists and to cope with international competition. The role of the Kazakh authorities is to plan and coordinate the tourism development policy at country and state level.
Keywords: international tourism, market, industry, export, development, cultural and economic life.
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International tourism is currently one of the fastest growing industries of foreign economic activity. The growth of tourism impact on the world economy is one of the most significant and long standing trends that accompanies the formation and development of the world economy. The international tourism in the Republic of Kazakhstan is a top priority. The main purpose of the development of international tourism in Kazakhstan is the creation of a modern, effective and competitive tourist complex on the basis of which there will be provided conditions for development of further international cooperation in the field of tourism. International tourism is a valuable source of income in support of the budget of a country. International tourism plays an important role in the economical development of the country. The large numbers of people who visit a country stimulate the production of goods and services. In the history of the ancient world, the first travels to the area of modern Kazakhstan were connected with the global tourist object – the Great Silk Way, the formation of which started in the 3rd millennium BC. The first tourist places in the area of Kazakhstan were connected with the conquest and migration of Turkish tribes. The first organizer of the pilgrimage tourism in Kazakhstan was Timur; memorable places associated with his name over the years helped to implement various social forms of tourism. The main monument was created in 1399 under the order of Timur. He was a Muslim and he built the tomb of Ahmed Yassawi. Today Kazakhstan has all the foundations needed for the attraction of both foreign and local investors in the tourism industry, enabling joint ventures to a great extent. “Kazakhstan has to work more on marketing, advertisement in Europe, America, Asia and other countries. Consequently, in ten years the country could become one of the leading tourist destinations. Besides, Kazakhs are hospitable people, smiling, open and these are good characteristics” as noted on XVIII session to General assembly UNWTO Gael de La Port
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De Tiel, the president of tourism marketing company Global tourism interface (Kazakhstanskaya Pravda, 2009.09.10). The tourism product of Kazakhstan is rich and diverse and offers a unique opportunity for development in almost all forms of tourism from the cognitive-related visits to cultural and historical ones as well as other alternative forms of tourism and ecotourism. The country has about 100 water clinics and more than 9,000 archaeological and historical sites. Hunting and fishing, including the national types of hunting, are popular with tourists. Accordingly, Kazakhstan must be promoted as a tourism destination in order to meet the needs of the global tourism demand and attract more tourists. Tourism in the Republic of Kazakhstan is a priority sector. The main purpose of tourism development in Kazakhstan is the creation of conditions for a modern, highly efficient and competitive tourist complex aimed at developing the industry as a potentially successful local economy; moreover, at supporting its integration into the global tourism market and the development of further international cooperation in the field of tourism. The government began to take serious steps in developing the tourism in Kazakhstan in 2003 when it drafted and implemented a 2003-2005 tourism development program. The successful implementation of the Program in 2005 was followed by the adoption of a new 2011 program (The tourism development program in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2007-2011). The purpose of this program is to develop a competitive tourism industry for the employment as well as a steady growth of state revenues by increasing the volume of inbound and domestic tourism. In addition, investment in the tourism industry has increased in 2010 up to 194.6 billion tenge, or 58.3% more than it was invested in 2009. Through the implementation of the program in 2009, inbound tourism has increased by 8% that is 4 million 706 thousand trips, while inbound tourists by 7% that is 3 million 95 thousand people. On the other hand, the outbound one
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has grown by 23%, equaling to 3 million 687 thousand tourists. According to the Kazakh Agency for Sports and Physical Culture, the income from tourism in Kazakhstan in 2011 amounted to more than 80 billion tenge, compared with the same period in 2010 - a 78.2 billion tenge – an increase of 5.2% (Ovcharov 2008: 48-57). Kazakhstan became a member of the UN World Tourism Organization in 1993. With this action Kazakhstan has formally expressed its great interest and dedication to tourism and the economic growth resulting from this industry (State program of forced industrial-innovative development of Kazakhstan for 2010-2014). For an understanding of the development in the tourism industry, positive and negative aspects of international tourism should be taken into consideration. Despite the positive aspects of the development of the tourism industry in Kazakhstan, there are still a number of unsolved problems. In this regard, the applied industrial innovative development program for 2010-2014 considers addressing these problems. According to the program forecast: "The increase in income from tourism activities in 2015 will be no less than 12% compared to 2008 (66.6 bln in 2008). Increase in the number of people employed in tourism in 2015 will grow by 20% compared to 2008 (443.4 thousand people were employed in 2008)" (State program of forced industrial-innovative development of Kazakhstan for 20102014). A leading role while implementing the strategy of industrial innovation development of the Kazakhstan economy is assigned to the system of local clusters. The tourism cluster is one of them. Today’s trends in this industry are such that the tourists traveling to the most famous resorts of the world seek to explore the countries where the tourism sector is just beginning to develop. Kazakhstan is one of them.
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The importance of the tourism industry development in the Republic was stressed by the President Nursultan Nazarbayev in his annual address to the people of Kazakhstan, "Socio-economic modernization – is the main vector of development of Kazakhstan", who said that: "One of the important issues of this development is the diversification of foreign direct investment flows into the Kazakhstan economy. They should be directed to the prospective industries such as tourism. In the developed countries, the share of tourism cluster is up to 10 percent of GDP. We have less than 1 percent. We must examine the country’s potential areas for tourism development and we have plenty of them. In this direction the world-class ski resorts near Almaty must be explored. Experts believe that a tourist visiting a ski resort spends six times more than when visiting a seaside resort. This is very beneficial for the country. We delegate the Government to work out a systematic plan to develop this unique area, as well as Burabays Resort in Akmola (Official website of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan). To boost investments in the travel industry of Kazakhstan, it is important to develop a transparent model for partnership between the business and the state which should take under consideration the land tenures, access to infrastructure and state support procedures that is the most important point. The practice of world tourism development shows that all states are primarily interested in the development of inbound and domestic tourism, as the first increases the currency revenues, while the later accumulates funds within the state and contributes to the development of tourism infrastructure. The overall contribution of the tourism industry to the Kazakhstan GDP in 2012 was 5.1%. By this figure the Republic of Kazakhstan holds the 17th place in the TOP 20 list of European countries (Economical reports on impact. The Authority on World Travel & Tourism, 10.06.2013), (Figure 1). The volume of income from the tourism industry of Kazakhstan (in bln tenge) is shown in the Figure 2 below. 33
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GLOBAL IDEAS: VOL. 2 (2014, JUNE)
Figure 1: The total contribution of the tourism industry to GDP in 2012
Figure 2: The volume of income from the tourism industry of Kazakhstan, bln tenge
Finally, Kazakhstan holds the 78th place in the worldwide tourism services export rating and the 8th place among the European countries, excluding the EU (Figure 3), World Appl. Sci. J., 23 (8): 1079-1084, 2013.
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Figure 3: Ranking of countries of Europe except the EU countries according to index of tourism services export in 2012
In terms of affordability, level of services and price policy, the services of the Republic of Kazakhstan are not competitive enough in the global market and they disadvantage compared with their foreign counterparts (Zhidkoblinova 2013: 1080). Among others, Kazakhstan is currently having a problem hindering the development of international tourism, which is the absence of a wide range of animation activities. In order to create and offer these activities, training specialists from abroad are needed, due to lack of local experience in this field. Furthermore, the absence of suitable tourism accommodations in the nodal points prevents the development of inbound and domestic mass tourism. As a result, domestic tourism is dominated by one-day trips at a distance of 400–500 km, during which a significant amount of time is spent on the road. Such trips are boring and leave bad memories to most travelers. Another problem to be considered is the fact that due to the global financial crisis, local investors do not invest in the construction of new tourist facilities (Ospanov 2012: 3).
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One of the constraining factors in the development of domestic tourism is the high price of air travel. The domestic flights in Kazakhstan cost approximately 300-400 euros whereas the prices for flights from one European country to another sometimes could be quite low. One solution to this problem is the creation of competition by launching smaller airlines for domestic flights at affordable prices.
The domestic medical-health tourism is well developed but the volume of this type of service dropped substantially after independence, mostly as a result of price increases in relation to the real incomes. For their establishment and operation, tourist firms face many challenges in Kazakhstan. The main ones are: the instability of tax policy, the high competition in the market of tourist services, inadequate support from the state, lack of own funds and insolvency of consumers. Serious systemic problems in the sector of tourism enterprises exist for a long time, and should be addressed to all levels of government. Thus, the following key problems have been identified through this paper and need to be solved for the improvement of inbound and domestic tourism in Kazakhstan:
High prices for all types of transportation, hotel and restaurant services. In addition, the high cost of transport services, primarily for flights, increases the cost of the tourist product and Kazakhstan, respectively, reduces its competitiveness in the international market;
Weak state control in the tourism sector. After the abolition of activities for the licensing of travel agencies, their monitoring becomes more difficult. This leads to arbitrariness and lack of control of many travel agencies;
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Low level development of transport and hotel infrastructure. At this level of infrastructure development, prices are significantly overrated in order to result in greater profits from the low number of tourists;
Weak research base for the study of tourism. There are no statistics and data to be used for integrated forecasting, long- term planning and organization of tourism for each territory;
Lack of professional and scientific training in the field of tourism. There is only a small number of literate guides designed to promote tourism in the country;
Imperfection of legislative and economic incentives for inbound and domestic tourism at the state and local level;
Insufficient organization of tourist services that creates a negative image for particular tourist destinations and the country as a whole;
Inadequate policy of the state and local authorities to create a positive image of the country as an attractive tourism destination;
Poor range of services offered;
Lack of a comprehensive and successful marketing strategy to promote domestic tourism.
Kazakhstan is undoubtedly an attractive destination to foreign tourists and the local population but the aforementioned constraints prevent the full development of tourism in the country. To be realistic, tourism as economic activity will not create as many revenues as expected from the relevant public authorities of Kazakhstan. The government should invigorate other industries as well, which, with proper and rational development can bring more income, thereby improving the resource base of domestic tourism.
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From the foregoing it can be realized that for the fast and efficient development of tourism (as in the case of Egypt and France), the State will primarily have to construct and repair the road infrastructure in all the historical and natural sights of the country. Moreover, it will need to provide easy accessibility to them, avoiding all physical and bureaucratic obstacles. Everything else can be done by the local people, travel companies and businessmen. For instance, some businesses could carry out their activities in underpopulated territories towards the desirable economic development of these remote areas. In addition, the Republic of Kazakhstan requires the issuing of visas for the foreign citizens wishing to visit the country. It should be noted that this procedure does not promote the growth of inbound tourism to the country. In conclusion, the tourism industry is globally a highly lucrative economic activity. As the global experience shows, for the development of tourism it is necessary to consolidate the efforts of all the stakeholders of the tourism market, both in the private and public sector. Therefore, one of the top priority directions of the Kazakh economy should be the development of the lodging industry with emphasis on the creation of tourism clusters. Tourism clusters can help the enterprises to improve the offered services to tourists and to cope with international competition. On the other hand, the role of the Kazakh authorities is to improve the infrastructures as well as to plan and coordinate the tourism development policy at country and state level.
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