Tourism in Central Asia TDM 458 Ara Pachmayer

Overview  The Stans - “stans” means land  Formerly known as Soviet Central Asia  Part of the USSR – except Afghanistan  Population  Largely Muslim with minority Russian population (in attempts to Russify the region)  Geography  High mountainous region  Lower flat plains

History  Historical ties to the Arab and Ottoman empires  Islamic  Genghis Khan - unified the area in 1200’s  Trading corridor  Silk Road  Many buildings from the era still standing and are attractions  European influence  Russian colonization 1400 – 1900 – brought language and cultural traditions  USSR  CIS - Commonwealth of Independent States

1990’s – today – After Independence  Economic and political instability after independence  Politically sensitive areas - Civil Wars, terrorist cells  Ethnic tensions with ethnic Russians  Poorly developed infrastructure  Kyrgyzstan is presently the most stable

Tourism Today  Moscow to Beijing Railway  Cultural Tourism  Religious sites  Traditional cultures  Adventure Tourism – rock climbing, mountaineering, river sports  Winter Tourism  Skiing, trekking  Silk Road Tourism

WTO Silk Road Project

Tourism Today  Problems for development  Not much potential for mass tourism – perhaps niche tourism though?  Corruption, bribes standard, totalitarian governments  Transportation issues Getting there – no direct flights to the region for the most part Getting around - poor road conditions, links to other destinations, some of the most dangerous roads in the world  Image issues - case of Kazakhstan (see textbook highlight on the movie Borat) and negative reports from tourists  Visa and entry issues

Tourism Today  Problems for development  Lack of modern accommodations  Entrance fees higher for tourists  Language Barriers Relatively few speakers of other languages Languages spoken are difficult not widely taught (Persian related though for some countries)  Lack of qualified tourism service providers  Source markets for tourism VFR - so spend less money overall From former Soviet Republics  Difficult to compete with most other destinations outside the region

Case Study - Afghanistan  Well developed tourism in the 1960’s and 1970’s  90,000 tourists each year  Many cultural attractions, Buddhist cultural sites, ancient cities, mountain trekking  Hippie Trail - came to an end 1978/79 with Islamic Revolution in Iran and Russian Invasion of Afghanistan  Communist Party take over  Results in 10 year war with USSR  “Never get involved in a land war in Asia”  Afghanistan in disarray after USSR withdrawal Paved way for current instability

Afghanistan  Today  Expanding investment in tourism  New Ministry of Tourism - to promote tourism  Current poor relations with US as a result of alleged harboring of Bin Laden

Afghanistan  eature=related eature=related  Afghanistan: an unlikely tourist destination