1. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Shagarf Mullo-Abdol, TCBT Chairman and Member of PECTA Round Table “Bus and Coach Transport on the Silk Road Routes – Time to drive” Dushanbe, Tuesday, 24 th November 2015

2. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road http://annoyzview.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/marco-polo-in-mosaic-form-china.jpg © Sebastian Falck Made for Explorers

3. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Why travelling to the High Mountain Region and it Silk Road? To explore new cultural horizons for tourism means to combine both, its mountains and its culture, as you more or less always will have to travel to the mountains, across the mountains or will be surrounded by mountains if you are going to explore culture. You will always travel spiritually, moved either by the mountains or the culture. © Mattes Bräu © Niico Graaff

4. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Challenges for tourism in Tajikistan: accessibility (Visa and permits) cross border opportunity with neighboring countries Infrastructure, signage and road side services capacity building of service providers, border guards, police and custom authorities budgets and funding of activities

5. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Tourism Opportunities: Hiking, Trekking and Wildlife Safari Mountaineering and Climbing Cross border cultural Tourism e.g. by Bus visiting Silk Road sities Traveling on the Pamir Highway Tough Tourers (4x4 Busses, Jeep tours, Motorcycles, bicycles) Leisure tourism – Central Asia City hopping Meanwhile exploring Central Asia you will find culture, always traveling along old trading or migration routes.

6. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road How to improve road travel across the Silk Road? Availability of “Silk Road isa” for trans-national tourism involving some of the countries in the region Reducing travel barriers for tour operators from some of the neighboring countries to enable them to explore and identify trans-national tourism packages Need for Tajikistan to establish a National Tourism Association (NTO) to lobby for the “Silk Road Visa” and to put more pressure to simplify the processes in obtaining visas and permits Availability of GPS apps and paper map for routes along the Silk Road with guided audio- tours in major languages (English, Russian, French, etc.) featuring directions to major attractions, emergency contacts, and the locations & distance to home-stays, service stations, public toilets, etc.

7. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road How to improve road travel across the Silk Road? Best Practice: The Via Regia (Royal Road) that connects eastern and western parts of Europe is a good best- practice example of cross-border road travel that could be replicated in Central Asia (See http://www.oberlausitz.com/ferien/kulturell/via-regia/en/default.aspx)http://www.oberlausitz.com/ferien/kulturell/via-regia/en/default.aspx

8. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Tourism supports many other sectors: Handicraft Agriculture Transport Culture Trade Health Win Win Situation!

9. The Opportunities of Tourism Development along the Silk Road Conclusion: Tourism Development along the Silk Road is fostering Cross Border Tourism, Economic Development, Culture Exchange, Poverty Reduction and Peace Enforcement. This kind of sustainable tourism development needs to be pushed further! We have to work hard on improvement of accessibility, infrastructure, joint products and marketing activities. Education, Cooperation, Knowledge enlargement and Compromise are the keys for success in the High Mountains and along the Silk Road. Trans national epic routes do not know boundaries. The Silk Road. One face to our customers. © Zerafshan Tourism Board