In Kazakhstan, the E-tourism portal will be launched, the Gamification of Sacred Sites project via a mobile application will begin. In 2018, an international festival of nomadic culture Uly Dala Ruhy in honor of the anniversary of the capital will be held. In Almaty region, it is planned to open a Disney park with Kazakh color. Rashid Kuzembaev, chairman of the board of Kazakh Tourism national company, told about this and many other things in an exclusive interview to PrimeMinister.kz.

— Rashid Talapovich, last year, for the first time in the history of independent Kazakhstan, a tourism management office was established at the state level represented by the national company Kazakh Tourism. Can you tell what contributed to this decision?

— The very development of the world economy shows that tourism is becoming one of the leading branches of the economy. In the current development of Kazakhstan, it is about diversifying the national economy. Tourism can become one of the drivers of diversification. In the leading countries that are leaders in the development of tourism, there are national offices to promote these countries as a tourist destination, which are engaged directly in marketing, research of target markets, building a strategy for promotion in these markets. Offices are also engaged in the training of professional personnel for tourism and attracting investment in the industry. Based on these tasks, Kazakh Tourism was established.

I think that the status of the company allows us to be an operator in such matters as the promotion of the Kazakhstan tourist brand, attracting investments in the industry, acting as a co-investor in anchor projects.

— Since the company was founded, it took a bit more than six months. Now it is too early to sum up any results. But you have outlined specific areas of work for your company. Could you list them?

— Almost four months have passed since the company's launch. But during this time a lot of work has been done. First of all, work has been done to systematize the problems of the industry, points of growth have been identified, we have an understanding of what markets we need to move through which instruments. We have an understanding of how it is possible to work, including with participants in the tourism industry. Therefore, for this year, first of all, the tasks are to determine the main points of growth and anchor investment projects.

Now the work is carried out on the inventory of all investment projects, we work with the regions, Atameken NCE. At the moment, we can say that there are already a number of projects that we will probably implement with potential investors after resolving investment issues.

In addition, we have a clear understanding of the strategy of promoting that we need to develop a national tourism brand of Kazakhstan. We need to understand that we need strong subbrands that must support this brand. We must understand that the digitalization of the industry is necessary. This is not a step that comes down from above. This is a necessity. Because now all the travelers, when they choose, where to go, where to stay, what to see, they first turn to digital technologies. Now this figure is between 50% and 60% depending on the regions. Traditional ways of presenting information — the media, television, newspapers, magazines — are only 15%. In this regard, we want to implement a number of digitalization projects. One of them is the E-tourism portal.

In order to stimulate domestic tourism within the framework of the Ruhani Zhangyru program, we want to implement the project "Gamification of Sacred Sites" through a mobile application. The target audience is young people. Most of the sacred places in our country are far from cities, where there is a weak undeveloped infrastructure. It takes a considerable amount of time to make them interesting and convenient for tourists. And due to stimulation through gaming, we can interest young people to start visiting these sacred places. After solving the problem of interest in sacred places, I think this project can be deployed to other historical or cultural sites. Such as, let's say, museums, libraries, theaters and so on.

— Rashid Talapovich, you mentioned projects with foreign tourists. Can you list them now? And in general, what can attract a foreign investor to the tourism industry in Kazakhstan?

— Well, firstly, we must understand the uniqueness of our tourist product. We, first of all, rely on eco- and ethnotourism, and it is clear that besides this we must have things connected with some events that must be held on a regular basis in Kazakhstan.

In addition, we have a very strong base for the development of MICE-industry — business tourism. These are forums, conferences, various seminars. Because we have everything in Astana and in Almaty in this respect: a network of five-star hotels, and large palaces, halls, and various venues. If in this direction MICE-tourism already has a base, but there is no basis for the development of event tourism. We should hold festivals. They must be international and appear on the calendar of international events. This year we plan to hold a festival of nomadic culture “Uly Dala Ruhy” near Astana in the framework of celebrating the 20th anniversary of the capital. Representatives of 10 countries will take part in it. Among them are Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, the countries of Central Asia. I think it will be a very interesting event.

As for projects involving foreign investment, it is clear that this should be thematic entertainment parks. All over the world there are Disneyland, Universal Studios, Lotte World, Europa Park and many others. There is a very interesting project, which is planned for implementation in the Almaty region. We have previously met with potential investors – with the Shanghai Shendi Group, which implemented the ambitious Disney Park project in Shanghai, which is the most modern and most technologically advanced park of the six that exist. They are interested. We want a thematic color, which will be connected with historical persons, nomadic culture of Kazakhs in our Disney park. These are Attila, Genghis Khan, Timur, Babur, Sultan Baibars. I think that the project is good and he will get support.

— At what stage is the project?

— Now it is at the stage of the concept, the master plan, but the initiator of the project has already concluded a memorandum with the akimat of Almaty region on allocation of land, there is already a concept. Now work is under way to develop a feasibility study.

— We wish you good luck in the implementation of this and other projects. Thanks for the interview!