Wednesday, january 17, 2017 inside nation healthcare minister reports on new infrastructure development plan A2

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2017

NATION&CAPITAL

TOURISM

B6

Kazakh Tourism CEO Rashid Kuzembayev.

Zhambyl region studies ancient 

settlements, encourages 

cultural development

By Zhanna Shayakhmetova

ASTANA – Thirty projects to 

preserve history and encourage 

cultural development are being 

developed in the Zhambyl region 

as part of the Rukhani Janghyru 

(Modernisation of Kazakhstan’s 

Identity) programme, reported Ka-

zinform.

“Six out of 27 projects have al-

ready been implemented as part of 

the Tugan Zher (Small Homeland), 

the Sacred Geography of Ka-

zakhstan and the Modern Culture 

projects,” said regional culture, 

archive and documentation depart-

ment head Duissenali Bykybayev.

The programme aims to imple-

ment the tasks set in President 

Nazarbayev’s article titled “Course 

towards the Future: Modernisation 

of Kazakhstan’s identity” in the 

next five years.

Financing of the culture sec-

tor increased to 2 billion tenge 

(US$6.1 million) from 2012 to 

2017 in the region. Nearly 250 cul-

tural objects were reconstructed, 

including the Balasagun central 

concert hall in Taraz, the Alexan-

der Scriabin memorial museum, a 

medieval mosque near the Kara-

khan mausoleum and the Akyrtas 

palace complex. The Zhambyl 

Zhabayev centre was also opened.

“The map of sacred sites has 

been developed to boost domes-

tic tourism and promote the his-

torical and cultural heritage sites. 

The tourist infrastructure is also 

improving. The digitalisation of 

library and museum funds is cur-

rently underway. The theatre festi-

vals and competitions, aitys (song 

contests) and other concerts are 

held,” he noted.

Eight historical and cultural 

sites in the Zhambyl region were 

included in the list of the na-

tional fund for sacred objects. 

These are the ancient settlement 

of Taraz, a large medieval city 

centre and former Kazakh Khan-

ate capital (dated to the 1st – 19th 

centuries), the Tekturmas mauso-

leum (dated to the 14th century), 

the Karakhan mausoleum (dated 

to the 12th century), the Aisha 

Bibi mausoleum (dated to the 

11th – 12th centuries), Babadzhi-

Khatun mausoleum (dated to the 

10th – 11th centuries), the Bai-

sak batyr mausoleum, the Akyr-

tas palace complex (dated to the 

8th – 19th centuries) and Zhaisan 

Sanctuary.

“Tens of thousands of artefacts 

were found during the archaeo-

logical excavations of the Taraz 

ancient settlement. The excava-

tions were also conducted at the 

Bektobe, Georgievsk, Tamdi, and 

Saudakent  ancient  fortifications. 

Historians and archaeologists plan 

to conduct conservation and mu-

seumification of these sites. These 

sites will be included in the list of 

micro-sacral objects. All the ar-

tefacts will be transferred to the 

Zhambyl regional museum of nat-

ural history,” he said.

The Ruhani Janghyru, a pro-

gramme article aimed at reviving 

the spiritual values of the nation 

taking into account all the con-

temporary risks and challenges 

of globalisation, was launched in 

2017. It includes the Tugan Zher 

special project promoting patriot-

ism among residents, the Sacred 

Geography of Kazakhstan project 

about the sacred sites, their history 

and descriptions, as well as other 

related projects such as the 100 

New Faces highlighting success 

stories of self-made people in vari-

ous walks of life.

Zerenda resort zone to build 

visit centre to accommodate 

tourism growth in 2018

By Dmitry Lee

ASTANA – The Zerenda resort 

zone will build a visitors’ centre 

this year, the advisor to the re-

gion’s akim (governor) announced 

in a Jan. 4 Facebook post.

Furthermore, Marat Igali wrote 

in his post, once the Schuchinsk-

Zerenda highway is completed 

later this year, the Zerenda resorts 

will see more tourists.

“The regional Akmola branch 

of the Atameken National Cham-

ber of Entrepreneurs has discussed 

creating a visit centre for tourists 

inside the territory of the state na-

tional natural park in the Zerendin-

sky district of the Akmola region. 

The general plan of development 

of the natural park includes a plot 

of land for the construction of the 

visit centre,” Igali wrote.

The government of Kazakhstan 

has been allocating funds to stimu-

late domestic and international 

tourism in recent years.

As a move to further develop the 

tourism industry, last June the gov-

ernment approved a concept for 

the development of the tourism in-

dustry to 2023. In August, Minister 

of Culture and Sports Arystanbek 

Mukhamediuly said there were 

plans to create other visit centres 

for tourists.

At the time, the minister also 

noted that the construction of such 

centres is a “world practice” and 

that “all necessary infrastructure 

for visitors and tourists such as 

cafes, souvenir shops, conference 

halls, workshops and much more 

will be located here.”

According to Igali, the visitors’ 

centre will be located inside the 

Kokshetau park area.

“The Kokshetau state national 

nature park refers to a specially 

protected natural area, a special 

regime of protection is estab-

lished on its land plots, on natu-

ral complexes and on water ob-

jects,” he wrote on his Facebook 

page.

“There are 20 hiking trails on the 

territory of the national park, for 

which there are passports, all of 

them are registered in the register 

of hiking trails, including six tour-

ist routes (three for automobiles, 

two sailing and one combined) 

and 14 sightseeing trails (hiking 

trails),” he explained.

The total length of hiking trails 

in both directions is 1,167 kilome-

tres, including 202.5 kilometres 

of hiking trails, 860 kilometres of 

automobile routes, 18 kilometres 

of sailing routes and kilometres 

kilometres of combined routes, he 

wrote.

“The Kokshetau national park 

has six recreation facilities with a 

one-time capacity of 200 people, 

including four recreation centres, 

the Ozerny station and the Hunt-

er’s House,” he noted, and said this 

year the park will build another 

recreation centre near Lake Zeren-

dinskoye as well as continue con-

struction on other planned houses. 

“It is planned to build about 30 

houses,” he revealed.

More than 50,000 tourists visit 

the Zerenda resort and the national 

park each year.

Zerenda is often referred to as a 

mini Borovoye, the famous moun-

tain and lake resort a few hours 

outside of Astana. The scenery in 

Zerenda is similar to Borovoye 

with pine forests surrounding the 

lake, but it so far attracts fewer 

summer crowds.

Zerenda is located about 50 

kilometres northwest of the city of 

Kokshetau.

Kazakhstan seeks ways to bolster tourism

By Elya Altynsarina

ASTANA – Kazakhstan will 

enhance its tourism industry by 

developing a destination culture, 

mountain skiing and urban travel 

products, said managers of Kazakh 

Tourism, a new state-owned com-

pany tasked with developing tour-

ism products in the country.

By 2025, the country plans to 

increase the tourism share of the 

GDP by 8 percent, up from the 

current 0.9 percent. Comparable 

sectors of the domestic economy, 

such as transportation (8 percent), 

construction (5.9 percent) and ag-

riculture (4.9 percent), would be 

similarly affected, according to a 

recent government report.

Kazakh Tourism is coordinating 

the measures to create an industry-

friendly environment, including 

institutional changes and region-

specific  goals  of  reconstructing 

popular resort zones and highways. 

Some products will be developed 

in conjunction with the Ruhani 

Janghyru (Modernisation of Ka-

zakhstan’s Identity) programme 

that envisions creating the “belt 

of sacred sites.” The memo claims 

there are more than 100 such loca-

tions, not counting regional sites 

well-known to local communities.

From 2006-2016, the number 

of foreign visitors to Kazakhstan 

doubled in comparison to the pre-

vious decade, reaching 6.5 million 

people.  Justifiably,  that  number 

may have been helped by hosting 

the 2010 Organisation for Secu-

rity and Co-operation in Europe 

(OSCE) Summit, 2011 Asian Win-

ter Games and EXPO 2017, as 

well as by establishing a visa-free 

regime for most developed coun-

tries and allowing new air routes 

into the nation.

“Our goal is to maintain the flow 

and boost visitors’ interest in the 

future,” said Kazakh Tourism CEO 

Rashid Kuzembayev in a recent in-

terview with kursiv.kz.

Yet in 2017, Kazakhstan ranked 

only 81st in the World Economic 

Forum’s (WEF) World Competi-

tiveness and Travel Competitive-

ness Index.

Kuzembayev emphasised the 

areas where the industry needs to 

improve if it is to successfully at-

tract  tourist  flows.  Similarly,  the 

report lists a number of drawbacks 

hindering tourism.

First, problems persist with 

visa and migration regimes and 

there is a lack of qualified person-

nel. The Kazakh Concept of the 

Tourism Industry until 2023 does 

not provide for a needs assess-

ment and estimate of self-reliance 

measures,  making  it  difficult  to 

attract investments and imple-

ment projects.

The quality of service remains 

low, even in places most attrac-

tive to visitors. Not surprisingly, 

Kazakhstan ranks between 71 and 

121 in the WEF’s Travel and Com-

petitiveness Index in terms of ser-

vice quality, availability of rental 

cars, infrastructure quality and 

hotels-population ratio. More than 

half of the 1,770 hotels nationwide 

do not have a star rating, which 

negatively affects the occupancy 

rate. That rate in hotels with a star 

rating is only 24 percent and 19 

percent in those lacking it.

In addition, Kazakhstan has 

yet to apply contemporary ideas 

of tourism management. Tourists 

coming to the country are those 

mainly attracted by international 

events. As the report states, how-

ever, there are not many compa-

nies that can skilfully arrange and 

supply domestic tourist products 

that would meet international 

standards, while domestic tour 

agencies mostly specialise in out-

bound tourism.

According to statistics, only 1 

percent of visitors come to Ka-

zakhstan primarily for tourism, 

with the overwhelming majority 

of them from Russia, Kyrgyzstan 

and Uzbekistan. People travel to 

Kazakhstan mostly for business, 

personal or transit purposes or as 

labour migrants.

McKinsey Kazakhstan Execu-

tive Director Jochen Berbner has 

compared tourism development 

in the Commonwealth of Inde-

pendent States (CIS) and notes the 

number of foreign visitors is high-

er in other member nations. Yet, 

on average a visitor spends more 

in Georgia or Azerbaijan. Statis-

tics from the report demonstrates 

Kazakhstan is rather a “tourist do-

nor” with 9.8 million visits abroad 

by its people in 2016 on private, 

business and tourist trips. The esti-

mated expenditure abroad by these 

individuals was approximately 

$1.6 billion.

To overcome these and many 

other hurdles and by drawing 

upon the best international tour-

ism development practices, the 

Kazakh government is considering 

focusing on “soft” infrastructure, 

which does not require consider-

able funds and can provide a quick 

return on investment. Government 

officials  believe  this  tactic  will 

entail a wider use of mass media, 

including television, the Internet 

and social networks in an effort to 

shape the country’s international 

tourist image – a brand of a new 

destination.

Efforts will also be made to-

wards creating competitive tourist 

goods and services. Popular tourist 

destinations traditionally rely on 

attractions associated with unique 

nature, national history, architec-

ture, culture and art, local cuisine, 

active leisure and shopping. At the 

same time, the experience of other 

countries shows a successful tour-

ist industry does not need many 

tourist products, rather ones with 

quality and uniqueness. Berbner 

believes Kazakhstan has much 

to offer international visitors in 

sports, business, sustainable and 

ethno-tourism.

“A strong emphasis will be 

placed upon digitalisation of the 

industry,” said Kuzembayev. “In-

ternet portals and mobile applica-

tions  will  facilitate  tourist  flows 

and motivate them to visit more 

tourist attractions, including sa-

cred sites.”

Similarly, Kazakhstan plans to 

make concerted efforts to ensure 

its tourist products, accommoda-

tions and services are listed on 

such popular resources as Expedia.

com and Booking.com, with infor-

mation relevant to inbound tour-

ism being regularly updated.

In the long run, more investment 

will be made in high-quality in-

frastructure to ensure accessibility 

and enhance the quality of tourist 

facilities and services.

“To enhance the tourism per-

spectives of Kazakhstan, our com-

pany is promoting PPP (public-pri-

vate partnership) in construction of 

roads, airport terminals and other 

infrastructure projects,” added 

Kuzembayev.

The government is currently 

considering measures such as im-

proving  investment  flows  to  the 

industry, adopting and including 

relevant tourism indicators in local 

governments’ strategic plans, in-

troducing measures that facilitate 

visa issuance while considering 

a possibility of adopting no visa 

rules for passengers who face ex-

tended transit times and diversify-

ing air transportation routes.

Tourism is currently the fastest 

growing trend in the world. Esti-

mates show that the average an-

nual market growth is expected to 

be 46 percent between 2016-2020.

Photo cr

edit: kursiv

.kz

---