Áåêæèãèòîâà Ç.Ñ., Ñàáäåíáåêîâà Ç.Ø., Øàéìàðäàíîâà Ã.À.
Êàðàãàíäèíñêèé ãîñóäàðñòâåííûé óíèâåðñèòåò èì. Å.À. Áóêåòîâà
Educational tourism: international
experience and development in Kazakhstan
Nowadays educational tourism is one
of the fastest growing areas of the travel and tourism. In recent decades it
has developed in a number of formats, which has a specific features differing
it from “tourism products” whose primary concerns are not about education and
those forms of tourism often dubbed as “package” or “mass” tourism.
Tourism
may be considered as educational itself as it broadens and opens mind, so the
concepts of tourism and education have a lot of points in common. The Canadian
Tourism Commission suggested that educational form of tourism could be seen as
a continuum ranging from “general interest learning while travelling” to
“purposeful learning and travel”.[1]
Educational tourism is an
educational activity implemented during excursions or trips which facilitates
gaining knowledge and competences through practice. Educational excursions
provide pupils with opportunities to develop their observation and research
skills broaden their experience, develop a scientific approach to the world and
a responsible attitude to the environment, nature and life.
The
definition of educational tourism says: “Tourist activity undertaken by those
who are undertaking an overnight vacation and those who are undertaking an
excursion for whom education and learning is a primary or secondary part of
their trip. This can include general educational tourism and adult study tours,
international and domestic university and school students’ travel, including
language schools, school excursions and exchange programs. Educational tourism
can be independently or formally organized and can be undertaken in a variety
of natural or human-made settings”.[1]
There has been massive growth in the
broad field of educational tourism in recent years. This has been fuelled by
both the growth in higher and further education worldwide and desire of older
tourists to learn something new during their annual vacation.
Educational tourism today has a
number of dimensions, including:
1.
Student exchanges between
universities where students may travel for the periods ranging from two or
three months to a year. In some cases, in Europe, these has been subsidizes by European Union
initiatives such as Erasmus and Socrates programs.
2.
Young people attending language
classes in a foreign country, which can last from a week to several months.
Some of these courses may be trips to
see local attractions and students may well live with local families for the
duration of their course.
3.
Themed holidays where tourists
travel with like-minded people to pursue a common interests which could be
archaeology, a foreign culture, cooking or painting.
In the first two cases the consumer,
i.e. the tourist, may not be the actual customer who makes a decision or pays
the bills. In these cases customer might be the college or the parents.[2]
In Kazakhstan
tourist companies’ offer in educational tourism is mainly limited to foreign
language schools. There are also tours whose main purpose is to improve skills.
According to the company “Market consult group”, the number of Kazakhstan
tourists traveling for education or other cognitive purposes, increasing
annually by 28%. [3] Thus, the demand for educational tourism in Kazakhstan and
around the world is growing rapidly, but the proposal only covers a few of its
many kinds. In Kazakhstan, it is represented by language schools, for example,
“Intellect summer school” and international Olympiads.
There is
segment that focuses on educational process and actually falls into group of
educational tourism. In this segment the primary motivation is educative and
tourism is pushed to second position. In it we can include many groups and
activities i.e. school excursions, language schools. Thus, today the most
common areas of educational tourism among university and schools students in
Kazakhstan are learning a foreign language abroad and participation in various
Olympiads, both international and domestic. Distinctive
features of these trips are safety and practical validity. Parents of students
by funding travels, which are purposed to study or obtain educational awards,
consider them as an investment in the future of their child. The parents, sending a child abroad, quite gifted in a
particular field of knowledge, consider it not as a tourist trip, but as the
possibility of obtaining educational scholarship. In this case tourist aspect
plays secondary role, but it is an advantage which underline the expediency of
this trip. Tourism
itself is not primary motivation, but these students are also seen as tourists
and they are important part of tourism activity in area. Besides their main
purpose on coming to this country, Olympiad, they gain knowledge by visiting
places and participating in touristic activities.
Such
travels, which relate to the educational process are carried out through
educational centers that receive newsletters from partners about upcoming
competitions and transmit them to educational institutions. Further, this
information is brought to parents' notice with an indication of the advantages
of participation. In most cases, the only reason to refuse from participation
is the financial side, and as for the safety of children, it is provided with
accompaniment of teachers. Since safety is one of the most important factors in
the development of tourism in any country as a whole, its ensuring plays a
decisive role in sending students to international competitions. Thus, the
group must be accompanied by a teacher, costs of which are paid by parents in
most cases.
As it was
said, the groups which have in priority educational goals while visiting host
destination, are also considered as tourists and are the members of the tourist
market. As with any other educational tourism is beneficial in economic terms,
so the task of educational institutions is to stimulate it as well as provide.
For example, among the main awards of the International Olympiad in Antalya is
preferential or free study at the Antalya Academy of Tourism. Thus, such Olympiads have practical
significance besides the fact that the Olympiads actually contribute both to
the self-assertion of personality and desire to achieve high results. As regards
promotion, organizers offer
teachers payment for all costs associated with travel to Antalya, provided that
they gather a group of ten students.
The program of the International Olympiad also
provides various activities both educational and entertaining, such as
excursions and creative competitions. All this makes the participation in the
competition, along with the main awards attractive for participants and
accompanying teachers. On the official websites of mentioned international competitions
placements also indicated. This mutually beneficial cooperation of competition
organizers and hoteliers is also convenient to participants, so they do not
need to look for a hotel on their own or take services of the tourist company,
which would entail additional costs.
Thus,
educational, recreational and economic goals are achieved by all active
participants of international competitions. International Olympiads are also held in Kazakhstan, whose members are
citizens of Europe and the CIS. In addition to the approval of the significance
of competition in scientific terms, the organizers should put more emphasis on
their marketing component. Participants are educational tourists, so the
organization of international competitions in Kazakhstan should deal with their
location and activities, on the example of the Olympiads in Athens and Antalya. Also
International Olympiad,
which program offers educational activities, which aimed to provide both
knowledge and experience will be more attractive to potential participants.
As for the other Kazakhstan tourist products of an
educational nature, they have their own distinctive features, but in the
information sources are not identified as a distinct category. Educational
aspects of certain exclusive tours developed by tour operators in Kazakhstan
are often dominant, but do not specify the nature of the tour. Basically, these
are called cognitive tours. They are not aimed to thorough study of some
subject, such as culture of the Kazakh nation, but only to acquaintance within
the framework of tour program. For instance, approach of Australians Studying Abroad (ASA), which was founded in 1977, to
educational tourism can be applied to Kazakhstan, a country with a unique culture and landscapes and
a rich past. One of the important
features is that the balance between specialist material and a general overview
persists in ASA tours. They also aim to give participants unique insights into
different cultural traditions by travelling to the places where each tradition
evolved, and tracing how climate, geography, demography and politics interact
to create specific types of art and culture. On many tours local guest lecturers
provide additional insights into their region or a particular aspect of its
culture. [4]
Educational tourism has great potential for development
in Kazakhstan and requires detailed consideration in the diversity of its
forms. Meeting the challenges of effective development of tourism will increase
the rating of Kazakhstan, among other countries, as well as develop the tourism
market of the country.
List of references:
1. Ritchie, B. W. Managing
educational tourism. Clevedon, UK: Channel View Publications. 2003
2. John Swarbrooke.
Consumer Behaviour in Tourism. Routledge. 2007
3. Market Consult Group research. 2009