Tourism industry in Central Asia: Satrapia

Tourism Industry in Central Asia

None of the Central-Asian countries is well known in the West, and neither country inherited a well-developed tourist infrastructure from the Soviet state. Mediators are cultivating a positive image of Central Asia as a new tourist destination, developing tourist accommodations, and lobbying government institutions to support and regulate tourism. However, the industry is rife with conflict and competition.

The benefits of Tourism

Tourism, an Economic and Social Phenomenon

Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening ‎diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. ‎Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses a growing number ‎of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver for socio-‎economic progress.‎

Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an ‎increasing diversification and competition among destinations.‎

This global spread of tourism in industrialised and developed states has produced ‎economic and employment benefits in many related sectors – from construction to ‎agriculture or telecommunications.‎

By country

For further information:

Tourism industry in Tajikistan
Tourism industry in Uzbekistan

Cultural Potential and Challenges

This book will be a major resource for all academic researchers and practitioners interested in issues dealing with the development of tourism, its potential and challenges, and policy and regulatory issues in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. These countries are gaining more attention as emerging destinations. There is very limited research that focuses on these countries with respect to their potential and characteristics as tourism destinations. This book aims to be an invaluable source for both practitioners and academicians who are in international marketing and tourism.

The Central Asia region as an emerging destination is ripe for future tourism development. The region is rich with historical, cultural, and natural beauty that could provide significant utility to many potential visitors. This book brings together key writings on this topic in a single resource.

This book:

explores tourism potential and competitiveness of tourism industry in Central Asia in general;
provides information on cultural tourism development with its challenges and identifies obstacles for tourism development in Central Asia;
sheds light on perceptions of foreign investors on the tourism market in Central Asia;
brings the region as a destination to the forefront of tourism academic research and development.

Perceptions of foreign investors on the tourism market in Central Asia

Elsevier (June 1, 2007), e-document (HTML)

Unique cultural, historical, archaeological, and natural attractions of Central Asian States (CAS) (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) present important opportunities for those states to become a major tourist destination. However, turning these opportunities and potential into a reality is likely to be a result of a long, expensive, and complicated process. The success of this process heavily relies on the availability of capital, both domestic and foreign. Since domestic capital is limited in many of the Central Asian States, it is likely that foreign capital is going to play a significant role. Therefore, this study examines the foreign investors' perceptions of general investment, tourism specific investment, and sustainability investment consideration factors in CAS. The study also tested if overall investment conditions of the four CAS can be explained as a function of general investment, tourism-specific investment, and tourism sustainable investment consideration factors. The study concludes with appropriate management and policy implications for both investors and the four CAS.