Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kyrgyzstan undoubtedly has the most liberal visa policy, with Presi-
dent Akayev's intent being to attract tourists and investors. The influx of
tourists has not been particularly strong, but in spite of this, Kyrgyzstan
has become one of the first countries in the post-Soviet area to substan-
tially lighten its visa policy requirements. Most significant of all, soon
after the fall of the USSR, the requirement to submit an invitation from a
local travel organization was dropped for citizens of developed countries.
As has been gone into in some detail above, Kyrgyzstan also retained its
faithfulness to the treaties between the Soviet Union and former states of
the Soviet bloc. This was a step in the right direction, because, during the
1990s, a significant number of tourists came from these countries (particu-
larly from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the Baltic countries).
Over time, this liberal policy regarding visas and the attractive mountain
areas within the country, along with its relative political stability, result-
ed in an influx of new tourists from other developed markets. In spite of
the fact that harmonization of visa policy regarding the developed world
somewhat worsened Kyrgyzstan's position in the Central and Eastern Eu-
ropean marketplaces, the liberal policy was maintained and confirmed by
the formal cancelation of former, theoretically functional limitations for
travelers, including permissions to visit the mountain border regions and
registration. The option to obtain a visa to Kyrgyzstan at the airport (and
not at border crossings) made Kyrgyzstan an attractive destination for
foreign visitors and a good base country for getting to know the region.
Although easing the visa issue into formal bureaucratic step at the air-
port, the Kyrgyzstan government went even further. Visa-free regime was
established for major developed countries in July 2012 (Kabar, 2012). The
result of this policy should be clearly visible in 2013 statistics (the tourism
in 2012 season was partly visa regime).
Kazakhstan is gradually liberalizing its own visa policy in small steps.
At the start, visas for the country could be issued by Russian authorities.
But in the mid-1990s, this practice was abandoned and visas were issued
only by Kazakh authorities. By the late 1990s, express visas became avail-
able at the airport in Almaty (very expensive and for short periods of time
only). Otherwise, however, requirements for a letter of invitation were still
in force. Kazakhstan began to liberalize this (cautiously) only in recent
years. A list was created for the first time in 2004 of developed countries
(Western Europe, Japan, the USA, Australia, etc.) whose citizens would be
allowed to obtain a visa for up to 30 days without an invitation from the
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