Tajiks Pin Hopes on Tourism Boom

Tajikistan’s government is hailing the country’s admission to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation as a sign that a tourist boom may be round the corner for this impoverished country.



While few would dispute that admission to the UN tourism body is a healthy sign, experts warn that the country is unlikely to see a surge of foreign visitors until the authorities simplify visa arrangements and other bureaucratic obstructions and more money is invested in building decent hotels.



Tajikistan became a full member of United Nations World Tourism Organisation, UNWTO, in December. The grouping serves as a global forum and practical source know-how on tourist policy issues, and has a particular focus on encouraging sustainable tourism in developing countries.



Bakhtiyor Hamdamov, deputy director of the government’s Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism, said Tajikistan’s entry to the organisation was a significant achievement that showed the country was becoming integrated into the world tourist economy.



“Next spring, UNWTO will send experts to Tajikistan to assess opportunities, potential and prospects,” Hamdamov told IWPR. “On the basis of this assessment, a joint plan of action for developing tourism will be drawn up.”



Hamdamov said membership would bring Tajikistan a range of advantages including support for marketing and promotion, help with identifying target areas for investment, training, and technology transfers.



While government official are upbeat about the prospects, tourist organisations are more pessimistic about the real potential for making Tajikistan a popular holiday destination.



In spite of the natural beauty of the country, especially the high peaks of the Pamir mountains, there has been little attempt to popularise Tajikistan abroad. In fact, the foreign ministry made it more difficult for visitors to enter the country in August by abolishing a scheme under which citizens of 68 states could buy their visas at Dushanbe airport.



Officials blamed the change to the regulations on the poor conditions provided for consular services at the airport. They said the national carrier Tajik Air, which also manages airport facilities, had not set aside space for consular officials as agreed, while the World Bank had not donated equipment that it had pledged.



Whoever was to blame, the suspension of the facility means foreigners wanting to enter Tajikistan now have to get visas in advance, a time-consuming affair which will undoubtedly put off many travellers who do not want to leave their passports with a consulate for several days.



“As soon as conditions are improved, we will start issuing visas under the previous regulations,” a foreign ministry official assured IWPR “But for now, foreign citizens must obtain visas at our embassies and consulates in their own countries.”



Apart from the headache of getting a visa to enter Tajikistan, one former director of a now-defunct tourist company voiced deep scepticism about the benefits of joining the UNWTO.



“This organisation is not really involved in funding the tourist sector - but it’s financial support that Tajikistan needs right now in order to create the necessary infrastructure,” he said.



As things stand, the tourist industry is simply not profitable, said the former manager, adding that this was why he had been forced to close his company.



Most observers agree that poor infrastructure is the main problem. There is a shortage of comfortable, reasonably-priced hotels, and Tajikistan’s roads are in poor shape.



“When foreigners hand over a significant amount of money, they want a high standard of service but unfortunately they don’t always get it,” said the former manager.



Shahida Yaqub, a London-based journalist who visited Tajikistan in 2007, said the country desperately needs to improve its infrastructure. She visited the remote mountainous Badakhshan region in the southeast, where she said officials make it even harder for visitors by demanding extra permits.



“There is only one fairly nice hotel in Khorog [Badakhshan’s main town] but its prices were high. One night cost the same as several nights in Thailand,” she said.



Unsurprisingly, Tajikistan gets few tourists. According to the economy minister, only 29,700 foreigners visited as tourists in 2006, a much lower figure than for neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, which each get about a million foreign visitors every year.



Other government agencies claim there are far more visitors.



“We have big discrepancies in the figures,” said Hamdamov, noting that his Committee for Youth, Sports and Tourism reckoned that over 250,000 people visited the country in 2006.



The committee only assumed responsibility for the tourist sector in 2006, taking over from the economy ministry



Hamdamov says the government understands that tourism could become a lucrative part of the economy, which is otherwise in a dire state, but he accepts that the roads and service facilities like motels and cafés are in need of improvement, and that more needs to be done to train service industry staff.



He is philosophical, though, about the prospects for rapid change.



“Even if the organisation [UNWTO] offers recommendations, will they be implemented?” he asked. “It’s generally known that Tajikistan does not implement many of the recommendations made by the international community”.



Nafisa Pisarejeva is an independent journalist in Dushanbe.