Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia: the Development of Ecotourism in Kazakhstan

The Zhylkyshiev couple own a guest house in the village of Aiyrtau in the North KazakhstanOblast. Usain Zholdasovich Zhylkyshiev is also a history teacher and his wife, Maria Musakhanovna teaches Kazakh in a local school. Their son, Abu-Ali helps his parents by working as a guide and is fully involved in the family business. The head of the family admits that the initiative to run a guest house came from the women in the village, among whom was his wife. The women turned to the men for help and won their support for the new business. Five families in the village subscribed to the initiative of developing ecotourism, which is run by the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia (EFCA) with funding from ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc., despite of the fact that there were so many risks involved in starting up a business in a new field.

With the support and partnership of their neighbors, they learned how to welcome guests, refurbished guest rooms, and concluded negotiations with a tour operator, which had also just started its own new project as part of the program. However, the opinions of the tour operator and guest house owners differed considerably on the price of service and manner of collaboration, and the owners were unable to change the situation through further negotiation.

Nevertheless, the villagers did not give up. Thanks to a seminar for small ecotourism businesses run by EFCA in June 2007, they managed to adjust their ecotourism activities: “Up until this seminar, we didn’t understand that complete success depends on us ourselves. We didn’t know that we have the right to choose a tour operator independently, and to put our own price on the service. And the main thing was – we understood that it’s possible to build relationships with tour operators founded on the principles of partnership and equal rights” – says Usain Zholdasovich. From 2007 to 2008 the families have provided ____ “tourist days”.

The owner’s son, Abu-Ali, first tested himself as a guide when an American tourist came to the Zhylkyshiev house. He tried to make full use of all his knowledge so as to provide the necessary level of service. The tourist seemed very satisfied and Abu-Ali realized that he had found his vocation. Now he is studying at the faculty of tourism and service at the university “Turan-Astana”, where, thanks to the support of ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. and EFCA, there has been a course in “Ecotourism Management” for three years already.

Usain Zholdasovich is trying to broaden his business, not only through material investment, but also by acquiring new knowledge. “Learning through the programs has been a revelation for me and has helped me find a vocation, which brings huge satisfaction and unites our whole family. We have already managed to apply a lot of this knowledge. For example, our women learned how to welcome eco-tourists, how to arrange the rooms, create menus, communicate, do calculations (which led to the optimization of expenditure), and many other things. But alongside these things, a lot of additional questions arose. The most urgent of these were the questions of advertisement, price setting, attracting of new clients, and strategies for further development. That’s why I went to the seminar organized by EFCA in November 2008, expecting new and useful information. After the seminar, everything fell into place. Our business is seasonal, but with the inspiration of our trainers we’ve already started preparations for the new season. We had a lot of good ideas, which we’ve now put into a clear structured plan of development. You could say that the organization of our own work and the training on running a business, which was provided for us simple rural dwellers, has changed our world view and opened whole new perspectives on life. Because of this, I would like to express a huge thank you to the benefactors of these programs” – and in this way, our protagonist Usain Zholdasovich Zhylkyshiev finished his story.

For further information:

Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia