Kyrgyz Tourism

Tourism news
Where does the tourism path lead?
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Kyrgyzstan has come into tourism with a rich
natural, cultural and historical potential and in its 15 years
of independence the country has already accumulated
experience of attending World Tourism Fairs. Kyrgyzstan
is working and learning at the same time and moving in
tune with world market developments, taking the best,
most accessible and acceptable paths relevant to local
conditions, as can be seen from the results of the market
research, which was conducted in summer 2006.
44,5
38,5
Expect more
Does the quality of services for CIS
tourists meet their expectations, in %?
24,0
8,0
4,2 4,6
More then
expected
40,2 39,9 55,9
Just meet
expectations
2002 2004 2006
17,1
10,7 12,1
Difficult to
answer
Tourists from more than 40 foreign countries, 70
cities of Russia, 15 cities of Kazakhstan, 10 cities of
Uzbekistan, and also internal tourists from different
regions of the country expressed their opinion about the
country’s hospitality.
According to the tourists the level of service
quality has improved in basic accommodation, cafes and
restaurants. There are more dissatisfied and disappointed
tourists than we would wish, but the overall improvement
in service level is obvious.
The demand for tourism services in the KR this
year exceeded all expectations – more than a million
people visited our country. At the same time the level of
prices was especially «impressive» and prices increased
dramatically due to the modernization of rooms and
building new hotels and resorts. There has been a visible
change in the structure of supply towards more expensive
rooms - from $35 and higher. The need for rooms at $15-
25 has become critical. There are no places for school,
student or pensioner tourism. There are no Community
Вased camps, as there are in other countries. These
deficiencies are the result of a lack of a leisure industry
development strategy for Kyrgyzstan.
The prices for adventure tours were almost
unchanged. Europeans value stability and can influence
the prices of KR tour operators. On the whole, prices
increased especially where the quality of service has
44.7% of CIS tourists are planning to visit Kyrgyzstan
again next year, as are 22.2% of tourists from foreign
countries, which is 10% more than in 2004.
Almost all tourists who visited our country this
summer faced various problems, some of which could be
solved. The repetition of some problems and the delay in
solving them casts doubt on the state’s proclaimed priority
of the tourism industry in developing the economy of the
country.
It is possible to see from the general picture, that
CIS tourists are complaining less about the low level of
service, while the state of the roads, Customs procedures,
extortion by inspectors and other inconveniences continue
to annoy tourists and go against the country’s wish to be
seen as a hospitable country. If there were not all these
problems, then walking the tourism path would be more
interesting.
R. Shaihutdinov
Director of Marketing Services Bureau
(This article is based on the Tourism Market of the
KR 2006, market research conducted with the support of
DMA|DMO, BAS|EBRD)
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Does the quality of services corresponded to
price paid by tourists from CIS countries, in %?
3,4 3,1 4,3 44,7 43,8
62,5
Consider price
underestimated
Correspondent
price
39,6 39,6
20,2
Consider price
underestimated
2002 2004 2006
12,2 13,6 13,0
Difficult to
answer