UNWTO Secretary General notes Kazakhstan’s potential in adventurous tourism
After the 1st of January 2018 Pololikashvili replaced Taleb Rifai from Jordan who had been elected to this post in 2009 at the General Assembly of the World Tourist Organization in Astana.
According to the forecast of the World Tourism Organization, the next decade will be the time of the "empirical" tourism which covers eco and ethnic, historical, cultural and social kinds of tourism.
The trends of the XXI shows that today's tourist prefers a new travel destination which will enrich him or her with new impressions, experience and emotions to a new smartphone or an expensive car.
Adventures with elements of extreme instead of "refined" walks are also popular in modern tourism. In this terms Kazakhstan has unlimited opportunities and potential, according to the Secretary General.
According to Zurab Pololikashvili, Kazakhstan has done big work to create conditions for development of tourism in the country. "Today we see Kazakhstan making tourism one of the priority sectors. In 2017, the Government created a special tourism authority represented by Kazakh Tourism national company. We saw successfully conducted EXPO-2017. With support of the Ministry of Culture and Sport Astana EXPO-2017 and the UNWTO implemented the world conference "Tourism and Future Energy: Reduction of CO2 Emission" which was a joint initiative," he said.
During the visit there were held official meetings with Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev and Minister of Culture and Sport Arystanbek Mukhamediuly and Chairman of Board of Kazakh Tourism national company Rashid Kuzembayev.
"This is the first official visit of the new UNWTO Secretary General which shows high level of mutual interaction between the UNWTO and Kazakhstan," the Kazakh Minister of Culture and Sport noted.
During the two-day working visit there have been discussed a wide range of issues associated with further development of tourism in the country and cooperation between Kazakhstan and the UNWTO.
"The UNWTO totally supports our initiatives in development of tourism in the country. We have strong chances to become a new trend in the world touristic map. First of all it is adventurous tourism and active leisure in Almaty and Almaty region, MICE tourism and City Break in Astana. We also have such perspective directions as the Great Silk Road, eco- and ethno-tours in the western and eastern regions of the country," Rashid Kuzembayev added.
The parties also discussed the opportunity to hold a meeting of tourism ministers of the Silk Road countries under the aegis of the UNWTO.
It has been decided at the meeting that Kazakh Tourism will create a center of guide and tourism operators training for Central Asian countries with support of the UNWTO in Almaty. The center instructors are supposed to get trained in Madrid within the next several years.
Zurab Pololikashvili expressed readiness to support conduction of the international investment forum for tourism in Kazakhstan which will attract foreign investors to the country's tourism projects.