TOURISM IN KYRGYZSTAN - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 269

economic conditions and decreased incomes created by the dissolution of
the Soviet Union (Özcan, 2010). As Kantarcı (2007b) emphasized, Central
Asian republics, including Kyrgyzstan, “had to adjust to shift in tourism
flows. In spite of their tourism structure and their previous links to the
communist system, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, these countries
could not adapt to the changes in the fast pace of the global tourism mar-
ket.”
In this context, one of the most important consequences of the Soviet
legacy is seen in the field of tourism-promoting and image-building ac-
tivities that are the basic prerequisites of introducing Kyrgyzstan to the
outside world. Despite the fact that the country has considerable tourism
potential, it is not represented well neither academically (in the tourism
literature) nor in the world tourism sector market. As Kantarcı (2007b)
suggests, Central Asian countries, including Kyrgyzstan, “have done lit-
tle to determine their image as a tourist destination. … [They] have little
knowledge, if any at all, about the effect [the] travelers' perceptions have
on the selection of a tourist destination. … [These] countries are weak and
lack of knowledge and skills to effectively develop and manage tourism
facilities and tourism.” The fact that advertising activities are very weak in
the country is a major obstacle for the development of tourism (Azizova,
2010). Advertising activities become much more important when the al-
ready existing negative image that the country suffers from is taken into
account. As will be explained below, Kyrgyzstan is sometimes associated
with conflicts, radical Islam and instability, and put into the same category
with countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan. It has also been pointed
out that in some cases, “potential clients” may even “confuse Kyrgyzstan
with Kurdistan” (Werner, 2003).
One other important issue that needs to be taken into account is the
Soviet legacy of “state monopoly in provision of transport services”
(Muhambetov, 2003). As there were no commercial considerations in the
operations of transportation facilities, the government would subsidize
these services and connect Central Asian republics to each other in a cen-
tralized manner (Muhambetov, 2003). As such, being one of the neighbor-
ing republics of Uzbekistan during the Soviet era, in some cases, airline
and railroad travel have to be done via Uzbekistan, making Kyrgyzstan
even farther away and isolated (Anderson, 1999). A related problem is
the poor and inadequate infrastructure that the country suffers from, es-
pecially in terms of transportation facilities, another basic requirement for