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This paper overviews the tourism infrastructure of Turkestan
region based on data available from the Committee of Statistics of the Ministry
of National Economy of Kazakhstan, analysis of internet sources and own
experience of visiting the tourist destinations in the region.
The paper
aims to focus on key aspects of the development and improvement of the
infrastructure and its competitive advantages for tourism.
Keywords: Tourism, Tourism Cluster, Tourists, Tourism
Infrastructure, Competitive Advantage.
OVERVIEW OF TURKESTAN REGION
According
to information of the Committee of Statistics of the Ministry of National
Economy, around 4972 inbound tourists visited Turkestan region in 9 months of
the 2018. Compared to Shymkent city, this is 3 times less and compared to
Astana city, this is 29 times less.
Created
in 2018 by the Degree of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Turkestan
region is a new region of Kazakhstan located in the center of the Great Silk
Road, with population of around 2.6 million inhabitants. The regional center of
the Turkestan region is the City of Turkestan. The area of Turkestan region
makes up around 117.2 thousand of square kilometers and it borders on the east
and west with Uzbekistan, on the north with Kyzylorda and Karaganda regions and
on the east with Dzhambul region and Kyrgyzstan Republic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Region).
TOURISM DESTINATIONS
Turkestan
region has the largest number of historical places in the whole Kazakhstan,
exceeding more than 700 sacral and historical places. One of the most interesting
historical places for tourism located in Turkestan, Arystanbab, Otyrar, Sauran
and Sayram (Nurbek, 2017).
In
addition, a region has a potential for development of medical tourism.
Locations such as Saragash, Kaskasu, Burguluk and Tulkubas are good for health
treatments, sports and relaxation. Kaskasu, Burguluk and Tulkubas are also good
potential for winter sports and mountain hiking.
Located
in the crossroads of the Great Silk Road, Turkestan region is focal point for
development of transport and logistics infrastructure for transit tourism and
business.
On
the other hand, Turkestan region and the city have a strong national meaning
that all Turk history started from this region. It unites many people no matter
of present nationality, religion or viewpoints and who believe that their
ancestors were great Turks, who originated from this area and spread in the
vast territory of the Eurasian continent in the past.
TOURISM
INFRASTRUCTURE
International
tourists can visit Turkestan’s touristic destinations only via Shymkent and
Tashkent International Airports. There is no direct flight to Turkestan city –
a center of the Turkestan region.
However,
Turkestan region connected well with main highways, especially with the highway
“West China and West Europe”. According to statistics (Nurbek et al., 2018),
the popular mode of transport for tourists are air and road transport.
For
Turkestan region the air transport is very important because it locates from
cities of the Europe and China on distances more than 3000 km.
Railroad
is well connected with the main cities, but there are no international fast
trains and rail links to tourist resorts and small cities.
So
that, any tourist can have difficulty when planning the trip to the region,
especially from regions which are not familiar with Russian or Kazakh
languages.
Visiting
tourist destinations of the Turkestan region from Shymkent City has some
limitations and issues. For example, between Shymkent city and Turkestan city,
pre-road infrastructure is in low conditions. The toilets and resting places
are not developed, most of them in bad sanitation, dirty and smelly.
The
road between Shymkent city and Kaskasu Resorts is very narrow and with high
road traffic. For tourists from Shymkent city there is no railroad or bicycle
options exist.
The
road between Shymkent city and Saragash Resorts is not ideal in that the world
class road reached only the Zhibek Zhol border checkpoint to Uzbekistan and
around 30 km. are very narrow, with high traffic and bad condition.
Shopping
and eating places are another main issue in the Turkestan region. It is
difficult on-site high-quality supermarkets or eating places in all tourists’
destinations of the Turkestan region.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The
competitive advantage of the Turkestan region comes from the historical
figures, ancient and medieval towns and from natural resorts. Visiting such
places energize anyone with positive feeling and emotions about the region and
its wealth of history and nature.
From
visiting the places, the information found was so valuable that it was not
described in detail in many sources of the internet. I visited 3 times the
Turkestan’s Ahmed Yassivi Mausoleum being the first time in the region and
found out new values of the city for tourists and the world history. This
Mausoleum brings visitors back to the era of spreading Islam in the region and
to the generation that originated from the followers of the Prophet Mohamed.
Arstanbab, one of the followers of the Prophet Mohamed, who came to the region
to spread Islam, became a teacher of Yassivi. The mausoleum of Arstanbab
located also around 50 km. from the Mausoleum of Yassi. In other words, after
Makkah, these two mausoleums are so sacred for Arabs and followers of all
Muslim people around the world.
An
interesting point is that Mausoleum of Ahmad Yassivi was built by the order of
Tamerlane – the third great conqueror of the history, who kept in fear the
territory from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Finding that Ahmed
Yassavi went to live under the earth after 63 years, at the age when the
prophet Mahomed left the world, Tamerlane was impressed and ordered to build a
Mausoleum for him and for his teacher.
The
most importantly, the history of Mausoleums connects it with the ancestors of
noble Genghis Khan – the second great conqueror of the history after Alexander
Great, who seized the largest territory in the history of humanity. Genghis
Khan’s around 300 ancestors and a daughter of Tamerlane Rabia Sultan begum is buried
in the territory of Mausoleum, making this place sacred for all nationalities
living in the Central Asia and beyond.
Above
mentioned is a great competitive advantage of the region to increase tourism
capacity to more than 10 000 000 visitors per year. And this is only with one
Turkestan city. There are many other ancient and sacral places around the
region which are connected to the Great Personalities and Heroes of the Region
and the World history.
At
the same time, Turkestan region has very beautiful places for health treatment,
relaxation, sports and outdoor activities. For example, Saragash Resorts are
very popular with its hot and mineral waters for drinking and water procedures.
Kaskasu and Burguluk regions are very good for hiking and relaxation in summer
period and for skiing and outdoor activities in the winter period.
However, there
are many issues and elements to be considered. One main element is
infrastructure which should be improved to meet the requirements of the
international and regional tourists.
CONCLUSION
Possessing
unique competitive advantages for tourism, Turkestan region lacks tourism
infrastructure. One main issue is intellectual potential, which should be
developed in order to start forming a strong tourism cluster [5].
The paper
tried to evaluate some of the elements of tourism infrastructure and define its
competitive advantages. It provided many ideas to improve the infrastructure
and services for tourists. Tourism value chain is another point of research and
analysis to build a strong tourism cluster.
Achilov, N. (2017). Development of
tourism industry: Perspectives and advantages for growth as example in
Kazakhstan. Journal of Tourism and
Hospitability, 6(1).
Achilov, N., Don, K.K., Kadyrova, D.
& Akmaral, A. (2018). Facilitating the globalization of businesses and
developing intellectual potential for new economy. ICITE-2018, Proceedings, ISBN 978-9965-03-513-5, Chapter V, 54-59.
Committee of Statistics, Ministry of
National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Extracted from: http://stat.gov.kz/faces/NavAbout/aboutAboutRegions?_adf.ctrl-state=gtykq6i89_30&_afrLoop=5139449467178307
Government of Turkestan Region. (2017). Information
about tourism development. Extracted from: https://ontustik.gov.kz/ru/pages/informaciya-po-razvitiyu-turizma
Wikipedia. (2019). Turkestan region.
Extracted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkistan_Region