Cash-strapped 'stans open up to
tourists By Fozil Mashrab
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan recently
announced almost simultaneously that they are
unilaterally abolishing visa requirements for
citizens from the 34 member countries of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development and for several Southeast Asian
countries. The move will make easier entry for
people from the likes of Australia, New Zealand,
all 27 European Union member states, the United
States and elsewhere.
President Almazbek
Atambaev has signed into law the measure clearing
the way for citizens of 44 countries to stay in
Kyrgyzstan visa-free for up to 60 days, Radio Free
Europe reported on Tuesday. The law was approved
by parliament last month.
The objective of
such a liberal step by the two countries,
unprecedented and quite
radical by Central Asian standards, is to attract
more visitors at a time when many international
tourists are choosing to stay away from
traditionally popular tourist destinations in the
Middle East and North Africa as a result of
political instability there.
The move has
the potential to greatly help the development of
tourism industries in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan,
though some observers in the region believe the
stimulus was the desire to inject quick cash into
their economies rather than a thought out master
and long-term strategy for developing local
tourism industries.
Supporters of the
visa-liberalization move claim it will open the
flood-gates for foreign tourists. The realities on
the ground suggest that both countries still have
a long way to go to be able to cater to even
gradually growing numbers of foreign tourists as
both countries' tourist infrastructures remain
largely underdeveloped.
A case in point is
the state of the two countries' national airline
companies, which are poorly developed even by the
standards of the region. Kyrgyzstan Airlines,
lacking resources to invest in upgrades, is banned
from flying to the European Union and much of the
rest of the Western world for not meeting required
safety standards. That rules the carrier out from
benefiting from the most lucrative markets in
which to sell Kyrgyzstan as an attractive tourist
destination.
That leads to a second
ground-breaking decision by the Kyrgyz government
- to switch to an "open skies" policy.
Local officials say that the open skies
policy will help Kyrgyzstan make up for the
weakness of its national air carrier while at the
same time help to bring more tourists to the
country. Critics argue that it will strike a
crippling blow to the already ailing national
airline industry which is not in a position to
compete with its stronger international
counterparts.
Supporters of an open skies
regime accept that it would lead to small Kyrgyz
aviation companies with their dilapidated fleets
most probably going bust, but argue that this
should be seen as part and parcel of a free-market
economy; the overall potential benefits that
Kyrgyzstan at large will gain will outweigh the
possible losses.
They also claim that free
competition between airline companies will reduce
air-ticket prices and that a cut in bureaucratic
hurdles will help Kyrgyzstan to position itself as
an aviation hub in the region, thus also
benefiting the tourism industry of the country.
However, Karim Damin, director of the "Air
Traffick" Kyrgyz air company, in an interview
carried by Deutsche Welle Russian, says that there
will be more losses than gains from introducing
the open skies regime.
Past experience,
says Karim, has shown that foreign aviation
companies reduce their air-tickets prices only
temporarily to force local rivals out of business,
and after monopolizing a particular sector
reintroduce much higher tariffs.
Secondly,
the open skies regime will not attract foreign
air-companies to invest in domestic flights in
Kyrgyzstan, as most of these are not profitable
while regional domestic airports are "in terrible
condition and absolutely do not meet international
standards".
Karim concludes that the
proposed open skies regime will lead to the
disappearance of all national air-companies and to
the loss of more than 1,000 jobs within a few
years.
For the proposed open skies policy
to be successful, Bishkek has to offer some
comparative advantages over established aviation
hubs in the region, such as Tashkent and Almaty,
in terms of better facilities at competitive
prices, cheaper fuel costs or at least greater
market potential - which Kyrgyzstan with its
around 5 million population does not have.
While local aviation industry
representatives in Kyrgyzstan are firmly against
the proposed open-skies regime, the government's
own Ministry of Foreign Affairs is opposed to
unilaterally abolishing visa requirements for more
than 40 countries.
Abolishing visa
requirements will cost the ministry US$6 million
in revenues, according to its own estimates, at a
time when the government has been introducing
belt-tightening measures in this and other
ministries and agencies.
In contrast,
Tajikistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs seems to
be the driving force in abolishing visa
requirements for its country. The Tajik government
is not yet considering introducing an open skies
regime and commentators believe there is little
chance that it will do so as that would run
counter to its policy of protecting and developing
its national carriers.
More importantly,
the ruling family in Tajikistan has an economic
stake in the Tajik air companies, and would not
welcome the competition brought by an open skies
regime.
The majority of foreign tourists
coming to Kyrgyzstan, and especially to its
popular Issyk-Kul lake resort, were predominantly
from Russia, Kazakhstan and other neighboring
countries, and so already enjoy visa-free stays.
The extended visa-free regime should widen
the geography of foreign visitors, but that may
prove a vain hope given that land-locked
Kyrgyzstan's own airlines are not up to the task
of bringing in these visitors, while the
government's attempts to outsource airline
services to foreign carriers are a big gamble.
Some observers believe Kyrgyzstan will be
expected to significantly improve its tourism
infrastructure to make its resorts attractive to
Western holiday makers, who expect to receive good
value for their cash.
Tajikistan faces an
even tougher challenge, as its tourism
infrastructure lags even further behind
Kyrgyzstan's, a fact that is made evident every
time the government hosts international summits
and other important get-togethers in its capital,
Dushanbe. During such high-profile events,
Tajikistan's hotels raise their room rates several
fold, making accommodation expensive even by
Western standards.
In others words, both
countries need to work on reducing the costs of
staying in their hotels if they want to position
themselves as low-cost or at least competitive for
foreign tourists.
The latest moves by the
two Central Asian countries may have a positive
impact on their tourism industries - or they may
quickly learn that there are no quick fixes when
it comes to marketing one's country as an
attractive tourist destination.
Fozil Mashrab is a pseudonym
used by an independent analyst based in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times
Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please
contact us about sales, syndication and
republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
