Tourism in Kyrgyzstan
Tourist resources are understood as a set of natural and artificial (man-made) objects suitable for creating a tourist product.
Natural tourism resources are the sum of resources contained in the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. In other words, natural resources are bodies and phenomena of nature that can be involved in tourist activities.
Social resources refer to the sum of cultural-political, historical-architectural, religious, and ethnographic factors and features that are closely linked to nature, climate, and the environment.
The development of the tourism business requires the presence of both resource components. Even with the high attractiveness of natural resources, which is characteristic of Kyrgyzstan, without the presence of communal infrastructure for cultural and artistic monuments, etc., the tourism business for a wide range of consumers is impossible.
Thus, tourist resources should be considered as one of the factors in the development of tourism and the initial basis for planning the production of tourist products.
The tourist potential of Kyrgyzstan is formed from two components: natural potential and socio-historical and cultural potential.
The first component presents the main natural resources grouped according to the three criteria listed below.
Landscapes. Among the diversity of landscapes, the most widely distributed forms are highlighted, such as mountains, rivers, and lakes, as well as unique, rarely encountered forms, such as caves, and specific forms that are found only in Kyrgyzstan, such as high-altitude pastures. All the forms noted in the classification are widely used to form a package of offers in the mountain-adventure tourism sector.
Flora and fauna are represented in the classification by four main classes, the representatives of which participate to varying degrees in the formation of tour packages for special ecological and adventure tours. Rare species of flora and fauna listed in the Red Book and protected by the state are of particular interest for the formation of tourist products.
Climate and ecosystems. Under this classification criterion, natural and climatic resources are grouped, such as mineral waters, sunshine, mountain, sea, and forest air, and the features of the high-altitude climate, which are used to organize recreational complexes, treatment and prevention of diseases, rest, and wellness excursions. Ecosystems that have retained their pristine condition and natural integrity due to favorable circumstances are also highlighted as an independent tourist resource in this component.
The second component presents social resources formed during historical development, features of an ethnographic, cultural, and political nature, used as tourism resources, which, like natural factors, are grouped according to three criteria.
Social-political resources, where, in addition to the main ones: hospitality, democratic constitution, and bilingualism, as a separate resource, also include the political strategy "Diplomacy of the Great Silk Road," proposed by the country's President Askar Akayev.
Historical-architectural resources are widely used to form tours of historical and cultural orientation. For convenience, the author divided them by historical-temporal criteria: monuments of history and culture before our era, monuments of history and culture from the era of the Great Silk Road, as well as contemporary culture and art of the peoples of Kyrgyzstan. Resources of religion (sacred and cult sites) are separately included in this block, considered as a historical-social phenomenon and a basis for the development of religious tourism.
Ethnography and applied arts. This block includes resources related to the way of life of the peoples inhabiting Kyrgyzstan, primarily the Kyrgyz. The significance of this block of resources is evident, as the international tourism market has recently shown significant interest in the cultural and historical products of the peoples - yurts (the dwellings of nomadic Kyrgyz), customs, traditions, cuisine, clothing, jewelry, and applied arts.
Properties, factors, and trends of tourist resources
In nature, types of resources exist independently as parts of it and are not considered tourist resources apart from humans as subjects of recreation. For example, a beach on the seashore, a mineral water spring, a picturesque valley - all these natural objects can exist in uninhabited places. But as soon as a person learns and assesses them in terms of suitability for recreation or treatment, they become resources suitable for tourism.
Each of the resources presented in the classification table has, due to circumstances, varying degrees of manifestation and, consequently, varying degrees of influence on the consumer market. In this regard, it has been decided to highlight the main properties from the large number of properties inherent to all resource groups, which include:
- attractiveness;
- accessibility;
- degree of study (fame);
- uniqueness.
All the aforementioned properties are defining and have significant advantages in the modern global market. For example, the combination of all properties of corresponding degrees: high attractiveness, extreme inaccessibility, low study level, and uniqueness - is a powerful factor in the liquidity of domestic natural resources. The combination of individual properties or the totality of all properties opens up good opportunities for promoting many interesting ideas:
1. "The sunken cities of Issyk-Kul";
2. "In search of the legendary mummy";
3. "Searching for the Yeti";
4. "Expedition to the Lost World";
5. "Unknown Pamir and Unknown Tien Shan";
6. "The phenomenon of Lake Merzbacher";
7. Searching and exploring new caves;
8. Climbing new mountain peaks and routes;
9. Observing the snow leopard and other rare animals and birds;
10. "In search of Shambhala" and others.
Speaking about the properties of tourist resources, the author concluded that almost all of them are subject to varying degrees of influence from impact factors. By the degree of factor influence, two types of resource use can be distinguished:
- direct use of resources, i.e., showcasing the attraction in its natural state as it currently exists;
- creative (developed) use of resources, i.e., showcasing the attraction after carrying out restoration and artistic activities.
This property of resources the author called "ability to be made up." The degree of consent to be made up among different resource groups is not the same. Social and historical-cultural resources show a greater degree of consent to be made up. Natural resources show a lesser degree. For historical-cultural resources, two stages of makeup can be distinguished:
11. The first - restoration stage, when the attraction is restored, resulting in it being given its original appearance, but often restorers go further, correcting and adding new attractive details to the object, such as viewing platforms;
12. The second stage - theatrical-artistic, when thematic theatrical events are held for tourists based on the restored historical-cultural complex using modern laser and sound technologies.
In Switzerland, there is the Trümmelbach Falls. It does not cascade like all ordinary waterfalls from a mountain cliff, but due to natural features, it slides down a vertical surface. Over many millennia, the water has carved a deep canyon in the vertical wall, and therefore the waterfall is almost invisible and looks like an ordinary mountain crack. A unique natural-architectural complex has been created at that place, and now the waterfall attracts a huge number of tourists. High-speed elevators take tourists to any of the six conditional floors of the waterfall, connected by galleries, platforms, and paths laid along the roaring stream.
Another example of improving a natural object for tourist visits I observed in the Czech Republic in the Macocha Cave. In the deepest and most beautiful halls of the cave, adorned with stalactites and stalagmites, illuminated tunnels have been drilled. In the halls and passages, lace-like paths and transitions have been laid. The play of light and shadows, skillfully manipulated by the guide, creates a romantic picture of the underground kingdom.
In Egypt, every evening at the foot of the pyramids, the "Sound and Light" show takes place. This grand performance is watched simultaneously by about a thousand tourists. The arena of action in the twilight of a warm night is a vast space - the Giza plateau, covering an area of 3,000 sq. km. Powerful spotlights illuminate one pyramid or another, the Sphinx, or even the entire necropolis from the darkness. Enjoying this magnificent spectacle, the audience listens to an engaging story about Ancient Egypt and the history of the construction of the pyramids. The performance is accompanied in one of seven languages, including Russian.
In Kyrgyzstan, however, all the well-known monuments of the Great Silk Road era: the Burana complex, the Shah-Fazil mausoleum, the Manas mound, the Tash-Rabat caravanserai, and other attractions are currently used by tour operators only for their direct purpose and have enormous potential for increasing attractiveness and development.
In economic literature, the prevailing view is that the production of tourist products is possible only with the merging of tourism, labor, and financial resources, which are considered as factors of production. The listed factors consist of two large groups. The first includes natural resources, climatic conditions, geographical location, unskilled labor, etc., which the country has received for free. The second group consists of financial resources, high technologies, modern infrastructure, educated labor, research centers, educational institutions, etc., created as a result of investments.
Analyzing the relationship between the mentioned groups of factors helps to understand the state of the economic system. As the national tourist product develops, the significance of factors from the first group will decrease, and the role of developed factors will increasingly grow. Examples of this include:
- The Sigalia Park in Japan, created as a fairy-tale world of recreation with artificial climate, landscapes, and recreational infrastructure designed for 10,000 tourists;
- The world-famous amusement park "Disneyland" in the USA;
Las Vegas - a city of entertainment in the USA, and several others.
The concept of "tourist resources" in Kyrgyzstan