Kyrgyzstan and Its Tourist Resources
Tourism in the world is based on the targeted and reasonable use of tourist resources, which consist of objects of tourist interest and the impressions that tourists can gain from perceiving these objects.
Objects of tourist interest can be natural, historical, or socio-cultural: landscape and climatic zones, geological and hydrogeological objects (rocks, caves, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, glaciers, etc.), monuments of history and architecture, small peoples and their ethnographic features, museums, exhibitions, concerts, and other spectacular or cult objects and phenomena.
Important tourist resources include man-made monuments of history and culture: unique cult buildings, mausoleums, sculptures, palace and park ensembles, museum collections, as well as modern structures - skyscrapers, towers, bridges, dams, and other large-scale constructions. Tourists are also interested in visiting mining quarries and mines, large livestock farms, wineries, and breweries, as well as enthusiastically participating in tasting rooms where they can learn about various drinks and the history of winemaking.
Various natural phenomena and processes can also be considered tourist resources.
For example, in the locality of Mont Saint-Michel in northern France, the natural and inexhaustible tourist resource is the sea's tides, characterized by an unusual height of water level rise and impressive lowering, due to the bay's features. In another case, on the Chenghu Fa River in China, a powerful tidal wave of up to 7 meters in height occurs twice a day, moving upstream against the river's current from the sea at a speed of 27 km/h.
Similar natural tourist resources in our country could be: the unique sunset over Lake Issyk-Kul or the sunrise over the Khan Tengri peak. These rare beauty phenomena can be part of many domestic tourism products.
Thus, countries possess a wide variety of tourist resources, the use of which is constantly expanding, with the tourism sector incorporating the most unexpected objects and phenomena, contributing to the expansion and strengthening of the base of tourist resources and the market for tourism services.
The realization of tourism business in a market environment can be achieved with the presence of four components:
- capital;
- technology;
- personnel;
- tourist resources.
-
This means that for the development of tourism, not only capital, technology, and personnel are necessary, but, first and foremost, it is essential to choose a location where tourist-recreational resources are available, and if such a place does not exist, to create one. Kyrgyzstan has significant tourism resources, and this feature allows us to assert that the fourth component of the tourism business - tourist resources - is the most accessible and inexpensive in Kyrgyzstan, determining its overall high profitability.
The main factor in the tourism business is the tourist product (tourist product - a set of services provided to tourists), therefore, the creation of a tourist product and its sale to the consumer is the main link in the development of the tourism business. This, in turn, means that for creating an effective technological chain, the tour operator must solve the following questions:
- What to make the tourist product from?
- How to make it?
- How and to whom to sell it?
- How to organize the service?
Answers to the second, third, and fourth questions can be found in textbooks on tour operations, marketing, and management. Knowing the answers to these three questions will provide only the principles, methodology, and organization of the tourism business. Moreover, the principles and technology of forming a tourist product will not significantly depend on regional factors, and conversely, the question of what to make the tourist product from is exclusively regional in nature.
The starting material for creating a tourist product is tourist resources.
Tourist resources are natural, historical, socio-cultural objects, as well as other objects capable of satisfying the spiritual needs of tourists and contributing to the restoration and development of physical strength.
The level of tourism, its development, and forms directly depend on the resources available in the country.
Kyrgyzstan, for example, cannot expect to develop space tourism, as it has neither spaceports nor spacecraft; it cannot offer or expect the development of such types of tourism as underwater excursions in warm seas and many other popular types of tourism simply because there are no resources in our country to develop these areas of tourism, and due to natural circumstances, there will never be an opportunity to do so - in simpler terms, there are no corresponding resources.
Knowledge of resources, of all their diversity, is one of the most important and fundamental links in the tourism business. Without a good understanding of resources, it is difficult to expect the creation of an attractive and highly liquid tourist product.
The focus on consumers forces producers of tourist services to seek out new market segments. In recent years, tours that amaze with their uniqueness have emerged.
In St. Petersburg, one tour operator paid attention to the roofs of urban houses located in the city center. As a result, an interesting tourist product was created - excursions on the roofs of St. Petersburg houses. Gradually, this program became quite popular among both foreign tourists and locals. Of course, it is impossible to transfer this idea, say, to Bishkek, since the specifics of our buildings differ significantly from the architecture of St. Petersburg, where, due to the development of architectural culture, the corresponding conditions have formed, allowing for the creation of such an unusual and interesting tourist product.
In Germany, a former prison cell is popular among tourists who love exotic experiences, where for just 20 dollars, one can feel like an inmate. The cell's environment consists of a narrow bed and a chair, its size is 4 incomplete steps, and the air volume is 22.3 cubic meters, according to the inscription on the door. Judging by the fact that the company is thriving, the tour is in demand.
The Parisian "Odeon Hotel" has developed a route for its clients that exactly repeats the last earthly path of Princess Diana. Those wishing to touch the mystery of tragedy will travel in a black Mercedes from the "Ritz" hotel to the tunnel - the site of the disaster.
With these examples, the author (S.D. Dudashvili) wants to emphasize that resources in tourism can be the most unusual. All the examples provided here give a good basis for developing a new exotic direction in tourism.
In organizing the tourism business and forming domestic tourism products in the Kyrgyz Republic, natural resources serve as a leading factor, as they play a significant role in choosing priorities and strategic decisions for tourism development. Thus, natural resources have proved to be a decisive factor in the emergence of many resort and tourist centers. The presence of an ice-free lake, sandy beaches, mountain forests, thermal springs, healing mud, and rich fauna has led to the establishment of more than 100 health resorts.
It can be assumed that with the growing demand for service packages such as mountaineering and jailoo tourism, we should expect the emergence of high-altitude base camps at the foot of our highest peaks, and yurt towns in the summer on the jailoo.
S. D. Dudashvili "Tourist Resources of Kyrgyzstan"