COMPETITIVENESS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY IN KAZAKHSTAN - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 24

RESULTS OF THE LONGITUDINAL STUDY

SURVEY OF LOCAL TOURIST COMPANIES IN 2009 AND
2011

The results of the survey including firm age, gender composition of the
tourist firms' employees, their education and language skills are shown in
Table 1.

TABLE 1 Descriptive Statistics of Survey Results

Variable

2009 2011

Mean age of the surveyed tourist firms (years) 5.4 6.3

Proportion of firms with age from one to two years (%) 18 19

Proportion of firms with age from three to seven years (%) 60 38

Proportion of firms with age of more than seven years (%) 22 43

Medians for the number of female employees in the firm 5 4

Medians for the number of male employees in the firm 2 1

The percentage of female employees in tourist firms (%) 67 84

The percentage of male employees in tourist firms (%) 30 16

Women with higher education (%) 90 82

Men with higher education (%) 85 85

Women with higher education in tourism (%) 45 30

Men with higher education in tourism (%) 32 13

The proportions of women with English language knowl-
edge (%)

47 38

The proportions of women with Kazakh language knowl-
edge (%)

54 49

The proportions of men with English language knowledge
(%)

40 41

The proportions of men with Kazakh language knowledge
(%)

42 67

Table 1 shows that from 2009 to 2011 the mean age of the surveyed
tourist firms increased by one year. The percentage of firms from three to
seven years of age decreased by nearly 20%, while the percentage of firms
more than seven years of age increased by the same value. The percentage