Types of Tourism in Kyrgyzstan
Based on the diverse tourism resources available in Kyrgyzstan, the tourism development program until 2010 identified the following priority types of tourism.
Mountain Adventure Tourism, including mountaineering and expeditions.
Adventure tourism has become one of the fastest-growing segments of Western tourism. Participants in such trips hope to return from vacation not only rested but also enriched with certain achievements, vivid impressions, and an elevated cultural level.
This direction has significant resource potential: high peaks (over 7,000 meters), caves, rivers, and lakes, as well as various mountain landscapes. The proposed national tourism product can be divided into: soft adventure tourism with light elements of adventure, sharp adventure tourism with extreme elements, and mountaineering, characterized by a variety of offers, including high-altitude ascents, technical ascents, and traverses. Trekking has great prospects, which is conditionally divided into: easy, medium, difficult, and extreme. Overall, the resources of this direction are utilized by tourism product producers at no more than 20%.
Tourism on the Great Silk Road.
Tours along the Great Silk Road represent various route variations of historical, cultural, and ethnographic orientation, usually transiting through the territory of Kyrgyzstan while visiting several states historically involved in the Great Silk Road zone (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, China).
Recently, there has been a growing interest in Silk Road tourism. The domestic package of this tourism product combines the study of local culture with experiences of the beauty of unique nature. This includes a rich historical heritage expressed in historical and architectural monuments and specialized tours related to the culture and nomadic lifestyle of the Kyrgyz. The tourist flow in this direction heavily depends on the quality of the combined product from several countries. Kyrgyzstan's resources in this direction are utilized at 50% and have good prospects, especially regarding the use of cultural and ethnographic resources.
Resort and Recreational Tourism.
This is the most comprehensive and developed area of domestic tourism. In this sector, more than 150 entities offer services for recreation and leisure, including resorts, boarding houses, sanatoriums, health and sports centers, and holiday homes. More than 120 entities of the tourism industry operate along the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul. The main motivations for tourist trips in this direction are relaxation and entertainment, recreation, health, and sports, with the resource base consisting of: pristine nature, clean mountain air, magnificent sandy beaches, and a combination of climatic features.
Currently, the resources of this direction are utilized at approximately 60%.
In the future, unique hotels on the water - botels, equipped with comfortable cabins, bars, restaurants, gaming complexes, and solariums will attract many vacationers during the summer season.
Winter resources are currently almost unused.
Types of Tourism with Prospects.
The existing network of specially protected natural areas in Kyrgyzstan (7 reserves, 1 national park, and 5 natural parks, 71 wildlife sanctuaries, which make up 3.9% of the republic's territory) provides a good basis for the development of ecotourism.
Kyrgyzstan, compared to neighboring countries, has the most liberal visa system and a stable reputation as a country actively undergoing democratic transformations, which creates good prerequisites for the development of conference tourism.
To enrich the proposed program for foreign tourists visiting our country and to increase their length of stay, the republic can offer specific products on the foreign tourism market. These include jailoo tourism, skiing down high mountains, speleotherapy for bronchial asthma and other respiratory diseases in the "Chon Tuz" caves near Kochkorka, high-altitude treatment in the Tuy-Ashuu pass area, trophy hunting, fishing for river trout and osman, gathering medicinal herbs and mountain berries, mineral collecting, as well as organizing scientific and sports expeditions to new unknown areas, interaction with wildlife, etc.
The souvenir industry, folk applied arts, cult, historical, and modern architecture hold great potential for tourism.
S. D. Dudashvili "Tourist Resources of Kyrgyzstan"