COMPETITIVENESS OF TOURISM INDUSTRY IN KAZAKHSTAN - Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges - page 32

advanced technical skills, and significant barriers for smaller companies to
obtain credit were identified as competitive disadvantages of the country.
Since 2005 utility tariffs significantly went up, competitiveness was lost in
this field; there is also little progress in coping with competitive disadvan-
tages today. However, positive results can be observed in the communica-
tion infrastructure and in the higher education system where new majors
required for the tourism cluster activating are opened.
Among demand conditions for the competitive tourism cluster develop-
ment improved regulation on IT and environmental quality as well as bet-
ter standards-setting and certification organization should be mentioned.
The context for firm strategy and rivalry has not changed significantly
and the problem of the establishment of favorable business environment is
still on the public agenda. Related and supporting industries in the tourism
cluster are developing due to numerous international events being held in
Almaty.
According to Bălan, Balaure and Veghes (2009) the overall competi-
tiveness of the world's 25 top tourist destinations is strongly associated
with the business environment and infrastructure ( r = 0.97), the specific
regulatory framework ( r = 0.86), and the human, cultural and natural re-
sources ( r = 0.83). They also found that associations between the specific
pillars and the overall competitiveness of the regulatory framework appear
to be strong in the cases of safety and security ( r = 0.83), environmental
sustainability ( r = 0.82), health and hygiene ( r = 0.78), and policy rules
and regulations ( r = 0.73). The first two indicators—safety and security
and environmental sustainability—deserve serious attention as they are
below the 100th rank for Kazakhstan. Simplifying visa requirements and
procedures is also a daunting issue to resolve. In order to clarify what are
the strengths and weaknesses of the travel and tourism industry in Kazakh-
stan the pillars of the sub indexes are further considered in detail.
The first pillar rank out of the five pillars of the T&T regulatory frame-
work sub index of the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index—Policy
rules and regulations—can be improved as a result of enforcement of well-
protected property rights, rules attracting FDI in the tourism sector, and
simplified visa requirements. The second pillar—Environmental sustain-
ability—lacks strong and well enforced environmental legislation with a
specific focus on developing the tourism sector in a sustainable way, de-
creasing pollution, and protecting the environment. The third pillar rank-
Safety and security—can be improved by increasing effectiveness and