Analyse of the sector 29/11/2010

Travel and tourism remains resilient to global financial crisis

Kyrgyzstan has two major source countries for inbound tourists. These are Russia and Kazakhstan, both of which have been negatively impacted by the global financial crisis. Despite this, travel and tourism in Kyrgyzstan has only experienced a slight diversion from its strong growth path and high yielding visitors from developed economies are becoming increasingly interested in the country. Equally important is the fact that tourists from Kazakhstan, the largest inbound source country, generally consider travel to Kyrgyzstan as ‘virtually domestic’ travel. This is especially true of the residents of Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, which is right next to the border between the two countries. This helped cushion the impact of the financial crisis.

 

Dominance of Lake Issyk Kul weakens

 

Ever since the Soviet era, Lake Issyk Kul has been the most important tourism attraction in Kyrgyzstan. Its popularity grew considerably during the review period in particular, with the result that the supply of accommodation along the lake’s shore has skyrocketed, as Kyrgyzstan attempts to cash in on its popularity. Lake Issyk Kul is now saturated with travel accommodation outlets, and investors are looking elsewhere for opportunities and travel retail products that can be sold outside of Kyrgyzstan’s short summer period. Travel products such as alpine tourism, mountaineering, cultural tourism and adventure tourism are consequently being developed.

 

Kazakhs begin to tire of Kyrgyzstan

 

Much of the success of Lake Issyk Kul has been because of its popularity with Kazakhs, particularly the residents of Almaty. Many of these visitors have now been to Lake Issyk Kul several times and, as accommodation prices have become inflated over the years, Kazakhs are becoming bored with the destination and are venturing further afield to more exotic locations that are perceived to offer more value. With Kazakhstan by far the largest source market, this has the potential to become a major problem for Kyrgyzstan.

 

Kyrgyzstan Airlines enters into joint venture with Pegasus Airlines

 

Kyrgyzstan Airlines has long suffered from such issues as negative perceptions of its safety, which were encouraged by the European Union blacklisting the airline, preventing it from flying in EU airspace. Being held back by such perceptions, air access to Kyrgyzstan has suffered. A joint venture between Kyrgyzstan Airlines and the Turkish company Pegasus Airlines might solve this issue as such a joint venture would be allowed to fly in Europe and also because the resulting airline would likely be a low cost carrier. An open skies agreement between Kyrgyzstan and the United Arab Emirates is also likely to assist in improving air access.

 

Kyrgyzstan switches to high-yield tourism

 

International interest in Kyrgyzstan as an adventure tourism destination grew over the review period and will continue to grow over the forecast period, as the quality of these types of travel products improves. The revenue earned by travel and tourism will therefore escalate, as travel and tourism shifts from being geared towards low-yield ‘virtually domestic’ tourism from Kazakhstan, to high-yield adventure tourism from developed economies.