On the eve of the regional akimat, a meeting on tourism development was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Akim of East Kazakhstan region Zhaksylyk Omar, during which a master plan for tourism development in Katon-Karagai district was presented, the correspondent reports Ustinka LIVE.
The NGO "Sustainable Rural Development" has been working in East Kazakhstan region, and, in particular, in the Katon-Karagai district since 2019. Its head, Fatima Gerfanova, said that in her work, the Foundation uses the method of planning the future in which the district will live and develop in many years. According to her, economically, the district will develop as a cluster of conscious tourism.
In terms of the environment, this is the first zero-emission area in the country. Since 2019, we have implemented about 75 projects in the tourism sector," says Fatima Gerfanova. - It was also the support of guest houses. When we visited Berel, for example, there were no guest houses there at all, and people were very skeptical about our proposal that we were ready to allocate a grant so that they could receive guests.
Today, for example, there are already five guest houses in Korobikha, three of which were opened by one of the tour operators and two houses by local residents. The Foundation also produced CDS for the tourism infrastructure and helped to organize a hospitality school.
The Swiss company PKF and Kazakhtourism participated in the development of the plan, and Anatoly Savichev, director of Kat'n'go, acted as an expert.
Tourism in Katon-Karagai district, according to Fatima Gerfanova, includes both the environmental and economic sustainability of the district, and socio-economic life, which will allow residents to live comfortably at home and not leave the area.
In order to develop this Katon-Karagai district as a center of conscious tourism, we assume that this development should include five main areas: These are maintaining a balance between economics and ecology; certification of Green Destination as a center for sustainable tourism development; implementation of a new management model of the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs; diversification of the local economy and the involvement of local residents in the development of tourism, which is a key factor in Katon-Karagai," she said.
According to the master plan, in 30 years there will be 75 guest houses in the Katon-Karagai district and about 800 residents will additionally be employed in the tourism industry.
It is proposed to assign a special status to the Katon-Karagai district," emphasized Zhaksylyk Omar. - Do you think this is correct? But keep in mind, this is from the point of view of importance for tourism. It's a good idea. The locals will love it.
According to Anatoly Savichev, director of Kat'n'go and a tour operator, the developers did not take the idea of assigning a special status to the area out of their heads, but based on international experience, having studied New Zealand and Bhutan – those places where the ecosystem is quite fragile and the local community is vulnerable.
Representatives of the trucks have a vision that by 2040-2050 Katon-Karagai will become one of the recognized centers of sustainable tourism in the world. Why is this forecast? As Anatoly Savichev explained, the post-pandemic period had a great impact on the tourism sector. A huge number of people began to travel to authentic and interesting places, and standard trips to Europe and the Maldives will not surprise anyone.
We have a great potential in our hands to attract a solvent foreign tourist here," Anatoly Savichev emphasized. - With the right approach to the implementation of this grand strategy, we are trying to ensure that one district becomes, firstly, self-sufficient, from the point of view of the economy - it will not be subsidized. And at some point, he will be able to, let's say, help neighboring districts and even regions. That is, we did a rough calculation, I won't say that it was exactly detailed, but we did it with the best economists of Kazakhstan for sure.
As a result, the district, according to him, will be able to earn about 28 billion tenge by 2050 only in the field of tourism.
In conclusion, Omar Zhaksylyk noted that the heads of the departments of tourism, energy, transport and communications need to build their work in accordance with this master plan. An agreement between the fund and the Akimat is expected to be signed soon. He also stressed that the Sustainable Development Fund allocates 100 million tenge annually for the development of tourism. The fund is also already attracting private investments for the construction of a visitor center in Katon-Karagai.
Source: ustinka.
Translated by VisitEastKZ
