The Coordination Council on Tourism meeting, which was attended by representatives of the tourism industry and government agencies, was held in Bishkek. Edil Baisalov, Deputy Chairman of the KR Cabinet of Ministers, presided over the meeting, and the Head of the Tourism Directorate presented the results of the 2024 tourist season.

The meeting started with the official announcement of Alexandra Tolstoy, great-granddaughter of the great writer Lev Tolstoy, as a tourism ambassador of Kyrgyzstan. Alexandra has been organising tourist tours to Kyrgyzstan for people from all over the world for 25 years. In her speech, she expressed her opinion on how the tourism industry in the country should develop.

"Kyrgyzstan has great opportunities in tourism. I have been coming here for 25 years and enjoying the culture and nature of this country. And I would like to see tourism here retain its authenticity. You don't need to do everything like others, because your culture is what tourists come to you for,' Alexandra Tolstoy said.

After the ceremonial part, Maksat Usubaliev, Head of the Tourism Directorate under the Ministry of Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic, presented the results of the 2024 tourist season. According to him, the tourism industry of Kyrgyzstan demonstrates positive dynamics. In the first eight months of 2024, more than 6.1 million foreign citizens visited the country, which exceeded the previous year's figures.

"Economic indicators have also grown significantly. The gross value added of the tourism industry in the first half of the year reached 15.1 billion KGS, which is 2.7% of the country's GDP. Investments in the tourism sector also increased and totalled 4.2 billion KGS (last year - 2.8 billion KGS), which indicates the increased interest of investors in this sphere,’ he reported.

According to the presented statistics, registered tourism-related businesses increased to 135,800. Tourism services exports totalled $479.7 million in the first half of 2024, while tax revenues from the industry tripled compared to 2022 and reached 2.8 billion KGS in 2023 (data for 2024 are not yet available).

As noted by tour operators, the positive indicators are being achieved with great difficulty. The barriers are created by bureaucracy and inconsistency in the activities of government agencies.

"The most important and biggest problem is the management system we have in the industry. The National Council is a catastrophically necessary structure, but we need it to work regularly. The Department of Tourism is powerless at the inter-ministerial level to solve any issues, and this has long been noted. We need some supra-ministerial structure so that the decisions made there are not just advisory, but effective. In addition, we need an analysis of the activities of the Tourism Department to understand how to make this structure finally work,' Vladimir Komissarov, director of the Salvation in the Mountains Union, noted.

As experts pointed out, tourism legislation also suffers from many shortcomings. Recently, amendments to the law were adopted, but many proposals from industry specialists had not been accounted for, thus continuing to hamper tourism development.

Tourist safety problems remain one of the most pressing issues. Kyrgyzstan occupies the penultimate place in the world rating of mountain region safety. Nepal occupies the last place, and Ecuador is in front of our republic. The Council participants also raised environmental issues, especially at sites like Alakol Lake and the Karakol State Natural Park. However, as it was voiced during the Council meeting, despite many years of talks about the need to improve the situation, no significant changes are happening.

"During its first three years in office, the Cabinet of Ministers focused on basic tasks. We were eliminating existing problems, increasing revenues and restoring the vertical of governance, ensuring discipline and order. We operated in emergency mode. Now we have a task to move to deeper strategic work. Tourism is one of the priority sectors, which should significantly contribute to our country's transformation,' Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic Edil Baisalov concluded.