What is Community Based Tourism in Kyrgyzstan?
CBT is an initiative throughout Kyrgyzstan, connecting travelers with the local community through homestays, organized treks, skiing trips, general advice. Each CBT has Tourist Information Centers in its locations. Some formal offices, butt some have their homestays as an office.
They arrange off-the-beaten-track tours. Help you stay close with local people. CBT groups have set up a network of residents willing to offer homestay to visitors and provide them with meals.
Listen to the quiet of the countryside. Enjoy some of the local specialties made by your host family. Learning about their lives. Get a personal experience not provided by a hotel. Note: CBT Hostels you are talking about must have above features.
What is the Goal of Community-Based Tourism in Kyrgyzstan?
CBT in Kyrgyzstan purses the following goals. Preserving local nature. Following local traditions.
The Swiss NGO Helvetas is used as the main agency implementing projects in Kyrgyzstan on behalf of the SDC. Helvetas only operates in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. Its operations in Uzbekistan were halted ‘due to corruption’ (Rayeva, 2004). Rayeva (2004) reports that the main focus of Helvetas is to help rural people and its guiding principle or mission is ‘ . . . to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of economically and socially disadvantaged people, especially in rural areas . . . ’ (Helvetas, 2002). In 1995, Helvetas started a Community Business Support project in Kyrgyzstan as a means of helping rural women to start new businesses and expand existing businesses. Resource limitations meant that the focus of the project became restricted to one economic sector, tourism. As part of the project, Helvetas recognised the need to provide rural women with the support of a tour operator willing to work with rural Kyrgyz people. However, Rayeva (2004) claims that, at the time of the instigation of the project, most Kyrgyz tour operators were not willing to work with rural people due to perceived uncertainties in relation to quality and service provision. This resulted in the establishment of a new tour operator, Novinomad, in 1999. This Swiss-Kyrgyz joint venture tour operator based in Kyrgyzstan, was created with the technical assistance of Helvetas and was designed specifically to work with local people and facilitate the distribution of local community-based tourism products to international markets. Novinomad is the only tour operator in Kyrgyzstan that explicitly describes itself as an ecotourism company in terms of its overall operating objectives and it is claimed that, ‘ . . . few other Kyrgyz tour operators work with local individuals as is Novinomad policy’ (Asel, 2004). In 2000, Helvetas officially launched its CBT project. The project unites various tourism service providers from different regions of Kyrgyzstan and functions with the support of Helvetas, a Swiss Association for International Co-operation. According to Novinomad (2003) the main goals of the project are: . to generate income to improve the living standards of CBT members; . to conserve the environment, customs and traditions of the Kyrgyz people; . to create a formal organisation among tourism service providers all over the country. The project has resulted in the establishment of a series of CBT groups spread regionally across Kyrgyzstan (see Figure 1). There currently exist 10 CBT groups in five oblasts of Kyrgyzstan, with the exception of the Chui region (‘less rural’) and Batken (‘low demand due to conflicts and geography’) (Shabdanbekova, 2004). Each CBT group is com- prised of a range of local tourism service providers including: bed and breakfast providers; drivers; trekking guides; cooks; souvenir-makers; folklore show groups. The group collectively promotes its services to international tourists via tour operators, with tour operators acting as coordinators, ‘packa- gers’ and distributors of CBT services. The CBT groups completed training from Helvetas and, in 2003, decided to form the Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association (KCBTA), a joint association linking the 10 CBT groups across Kyrgyzstan and providing rural people with a stronger voice in Kyrgyz tourism. Membership of the CBT groups is defined as ‘local people’ although these people are predominantly ethnic Kyrgyz nationals (Shabdanbekova, 2004). When the groups were initially established, consultants from Helvetas visited rural target regions in Kyrgyzstan and invited local people to attend meetings where the criteria for becoming local tourism providers were explained. These criteria centre around a set of ecotourism principles established by Novinomad. Despite the initial difficulties in finding Kyrgyz tour operator partners for the CBT groups the KCBTA officially now has 14 tour operator partners based on a voluntary cooperation agreement with no economic or contractual ties. The tour operators are asked to act as local coordinators for the CBT groups and to abide by the following
The Community Based Tourism Organizations in Kyrgyzstan.
CBT Alay
CBT Manager speaks perfect Engish. See the location CBT Alay in Osh city.
CBT Arslanbob
CBT has worked hard to ensure that tourists will visit the small town to take a look around one of the world’s biggest walnut forests, trek to their waterfalls or take part in a number of activities they have on offer. CBT Manager speaks perfect Engish. See the location CBT Arslonbob.
CBT Bokonbaevo
the Bokonbaevo CBT on the edge of Lake Issyk-Kul, in the east of Kyrgyzstan, is another interesting option offering a range of activities from trekking to horseback riding and fishing, while giving visitors the chance to stay in yurts – small, circular huts traditionally used by Kyrgyzstan’s nomadic population. CBT Manager doesn’t speak Engish. But his assistant speaks good English. See the location CBT Bokonbaevo.
CBT Jalal Abad
CBT Manager speaks conversation English. Engish. See the location CBT Jalal Abad.
CBT Cong Kemin
CBT Manager speaks basic English.
CBT Kara Suu
CBT Manager doesn’s speak English, but you contact him via email. His son speaks Engish.
CBT Karakol
CBT Manager speaks perfect English
CBT Kazarman
CBT Manager speaks conversation English.
CBT Kochkor
CBT Manager speaks conversation English
CBT Kyzyl Oi
CBT Naryn
CBT Osh
CBT Sarymogol
CBT Talas
CBT Tamchy
Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association in Bishkek.
The misconceptions of about Community-Based Tourism Organizations in Kyrgyzstan.
It is not government sponsored or state organizations. CBT gets a 15 – 20 % commission from each service it sells through their members.
Recommendations on Improving on Community Based Tourism Organization in Kyrgyzstan
Community-Based Tourism Organizations in Central Asia
There have been several attempts to open a Community-Based Tourism Organization across Central Asia. The countries were Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.