National Parks Remain Underdeveloped as a Source of Tourism and Exports
Translated from Russian with the help of AI. Original: Russian version
Kazakhstan's national parks are underdeveloped as a source of tourism revenue and exports, chiefly because of poor infrastructure. I propose splitting responsibility for roads and other infrastructure among several ministries.
For many foreign tourists, Kazakhstan is attractive only as an eco-tourism destination. In other words, foreigners come to see our nature. In Central Asia we are one of the most developed countries: our cities are well developed, with very good basic infrastructure and safety for foreign visitors. For an eco-tourist the city is the first stop, and from there most people travel on to our National Parks through various agencies. But our National Parks are a major pain point for tourists. There was a certain surge of development in the parks, but we never saw comprehensive development. The main problem is infrastructure. The National Parks are managed by the Ministry of Ecology, whose mandate is not tourists but the conservation of flora and fauna. As a result, the parks cannot develop as they should, especially as a major source of government revenue and employment. Something must be done about this. Proper positioning and good infrastructure in our National Parks could attract hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world, and, as we know, tourism is a pure export. People bring in and leave behind thousands of dollars. Moreover, the local content of such a product is very high, because it is a service industry.
In my view, responsibility for the National Parks should be divided among several ministries. At present it is evident that no one looks after the roads in the parks, and their condition is simply dismal. Many parks have no mobile coverage. Roadside infrastructure is chaotic, unsystematic and of very low quality. To standardize and develop all of this, I believe roads and high-traffic visitor areas should be separated from the parks and transferred to other ministries. For example, roads should go to the Ministry of Transport, communications to the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, and sites for hotel and restaurant infrastructure to the Ministry of Tourism. Barrier gates are purely a function of the Ministry of Finance. The gates are still rife with corruption, even though we already have many systems that can fully automate entry to the National Parks, and the tax authorities should be the first to take an interest in this.
If the government approaches this more systematically, we can achieve very good results.