Tourism Infrastructure Needs Overhaul

Huge investment needs to be made in tourism infrastructure and marketing if Kyrgyzstan is to attract visitors to other areas of the country besides its biggest lake, say experts and observers.



Turusbek Mamashov, director of the state agency for tourism, announced on February 12 that special emphasis will be put on developing tourism outside of the most popular destinations in Kyrgzystan this year. Mamashov said that the development of Kyrgyz tourism should not be limited to Issyk-Kul, the country’s largest mountain lake, which at its busiest, attracts up to a million tourists each year.



According to official statistics, the total revenue from tourism in Kyrgyzstan came to around 100 million US dollars last year and a large proportion came from Issyk-Kul resorts.



Sapar Orozbakov, director of Bishkek-based Centre for Economic Analysis, says that tourism could have a significant impact on economic development throughout the country, increasing employment and improving social welfare and living conditions.



Anara Orozbaeva, executive director of the Kyrgyz Association of Tourism, which has been helping local communities in 18 regions develop tourism by building guest houses and training maintenance staff since 2000, believes that these regions each offer unique tourism opportunities, but they need to develop better marketing strategies and improve their infrastructure.



But concentrating state efforts on developing tourism in such places might not be unjustified because Issyk-Kul lake itself needs greater investment, according to NBCentralAsia economic analyst Jyldyz Sarybaeva.





“How rational is it to spend money and time on developing tourism in the regions, if there are not even satisfactory conditions for foreign guests at Issyk-Kul lake?"



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)