ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ УПРАВЛЕНИЕ/2.Современные технологии управления.

O. Zhidkoblinova

Karaganda Economic University Kazpotrebsoyuz, Kazakhstan

NATIONAL TOURISM SECTOR DEVELOPMENT POLICY

The continued growth of world tourism confirms that tourism has become one of the most important components of modern economic space [1, p.13]. Kazakhstan’s tourist market being one of the fastest growing global industries has a slow pace of development. The limited financial possibilities of citizens, underdeveloped tourist infrastructure, disagreement of interests between the government and the private sector are limiting factors for developing Kazakhstan’s tourism industry.

Absence or ineffective participation of interested parties is one of the main obstacles to implementation of sustainable tourism development concepts, and uncertainty on how to solve this problem best [2, p.346].

International experience shows that it is possible to achieve competitiveness in the global tourism market by developing new economic integration forms among the government, tourism business and population [3, p.592]. Therefore, formation and creation of favorable conditions for effective functioning of the tourism cluster is one of the priorities of Kazakhstan’s national tourism policy.

Despite the fact that Kazakhstan has a vast territory with potentially attractive tourist zones, the tourism industry of the country is characterized by underdevelopment. Its share in the gross domestic product is about 1.6%.

As of 2014, the volume of produced goods and services in the field of tourism amounted to 202 119.3 million tenge. Exports of tourist services increased up to 6 US$ 348.1 million, and import did up to US$ 12 783.3. However, the inbound tourism still almost doubled the outbound. As of 2014, the outbound tourism amounted to 10.4 million people, and the inbound one - 6.3 million people. The number of travel companies in comparison with the previous year decreased by 19% (1777 units). Moreover, the number of higher education institutions training specialists for the tourism industry dropped to 40 due to the ongoing government measures to improve the quality of educational services [4].

Analysis of inbound tourist flows in Kazakhstan indicates that the country is still not attractive enough for foreign tourists.

The main problems hindering tourism industry development in Kazakhstan are: disconnection of tourism market participants, underdeveloped legal framework, inadequate high prices for accommodation while there is sufficiently low level of development of tourism infrastructure; fear of potential tourists in their own safety; weak development of leisure and entertainment infrastructure in tourist centers; lack of awareness of potential tourists; absence of a common policy of tourism industry representatives and national authorities to promote regional tourism products; lack of highly qualified staff both in tourism enterprises and in regional system of public tourism industry management.

The nature of existing barriers to develop the tourism industry in a region suggests that their elimination depends on the activity of public administration, creation of the necessary favorable conditions for development of a tourist complex, implementation of measures to support enterprises of the tourism industry.

Supporting tourism at the national level is a requirement to eliminate these problems and to ensure sustainable development of the tourism industry.

Steep prices for accommodation of tourists are the result of inefficient tax policy. It is necessary to introduce local tourist rents charged to the enterprises in the sphere of tourism by changing the structure of tax revenue in the regions of the Republic of Kazakhstan to resolve this problem and adjustment of service costs to the average European prices. Collected funds can be invested in development of tourist facilities and recreational resources.

Studies of unstable tourism development on local level in developing countries show that the factors that contribute to the unsustainable development of tourism are beyond the control of local residents and authorities. These factors related largely to the issues on a national scale, including economic policy, importance of tourism for the country, relationship between the decision-makers (ministers, heads of departments, etc.) and international tour operators in the international tourism. The main conclusion of the study is that achievement of sustainable development of tourism on local level in developing countries requires hard political decisions, control over their performance and cooperation of international tour operators and local travel companies [5, p.18].

The economy of entire regions of the country is actively engaged by tourism. Establishment and operation of economic entities in the field of tourism is closely linked with development of road transport, commercial, municipal, cultural, health services. Thus, tourism has a strong effect than the most of other economic sectors.

Tourism is a new developing economic cluster, and tourism industry in Kazakhstan's economy faces special problems associated with abrupt changes in its political and economic systems. The main purpose of developing tourism in Kazakhstan is establishment of a modern highly effective and competitive tourist complex with conditions for development of the industry as a sector of economy, integration into the world tourism market and development of further international cooperation in the field of tourism.

To meet these challenges, a crucial role is played by creation of an innovative economy and development of non-primary sector in national economy. It is no accident that the President Nursultan Nazarbayev has identified the tourism industry sector as one of the national economic priorities in the long term of the seven clusters, which indicates the value of this industry as one of the important factors of socio-economic development of the country.

Recent initiatives and events in the tourism industry show that our government intends to participate actively in the long-term promotion of Kazakhstan's tourism product. The republic has the challenged task, which is to become one of the 30 most competitive countries of the world in the near future. It is important to understand today, that Kazakhstan’s tourist complex can be a powerful lever to accelerate the overall growth and modernization of the country’s economy.

To develop the tourism industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan, a comprehensive approach and a complex analysis should be applied, which can be achieved by clustering the industry. In recent years, the literature on hospitality and tourism problems notes that there is a sharp increase in attention to clusters and cluster policy. Their vital importance for creating long-term competitive advantages of territories aimed at successful attraction of tourist flows is emphasized.

The term "cluster" is used in the tourism industry, whenever concentration of interconnected enterprises network on a certain territory engaged in development, production, promotion and implementation of a tourism product, including also companies operating in related sectors is meant.

The goal of establishing tourism clusters is to improve the region's competitiveness in a global tourism market due to synergistic effect resulting from increasing the efficiency of companies included in the cluster, stimulating innovation and investment activity. In fact, tourism cluster determines the image of a region and affects its positioning.

The economic cluster is a network of independent industrial and / or service companies (including suppliers), creators of technology and know-how (universities, research institutes, engineering companies), market institutions (brokers, consultants), collaborating consumers within the same value chain.

The basis of the national policy on creation and development of clusters should be based on the following nine principles:

- advance goal-setting;

- multi-level governmental cluster regulation;

- creation of clusters on the basis of competitive advantage;

- attraction of direct investments;

- development of specialized factors;

- cooperation with other countries [6, p.49].

The cluster approach can be successfully used for tourism development in the Republic of Kazakhstan since it has all the necessary prerequisites.

When deciding practicability of cluster tourism development, consideration must be given to that the feature of tourism is the complexity of tourist services. This service consists of a set of tangible and intangible services that are tourism-specific products. These individual tourist services are complementary. They are usually carried out by different companies.

Companies providing a set of tourist services are highly dependent on each other. Consequently, cooperation of tourist business participants, development of their partnership is required.

The success of tourism enterprises is the key target of numerous business partners, and their prosperity is directly dependent on the results of its operations.

The main partnership groups of a tourist enterprise are owners of businesses, investors, lenders, managers, staff, suppliers of equipment and objects of labor, consumers, society and the government.

Secondary groups that are not directly interested in the success of this tourism enterprise are insurance companies, auditing and consulting firms, law firms, associations, media, trade unions, regulatory bodies, etc.

The strategic goal of creating a tourism cluster is to develop a competitive tourism industry as one of the leading and the priority sectors of the economy, which provides, on the one hand, the demand of consumers to meet their needs for tourist services, on the other hand, a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of a region by increasing the revenue of the local budget, investment, creating more jobs, improving public health, conservation and management of cultural, historical and natural heritage.

To achieve this goal it is necessary to solve the following problems:

- to improve the mechanism for state regulation and support of tourism;

- to develop and implement tourism projects of international importance;

- to develop tourism infrastructure necessary to improve the competitiveness of Kazakhstan on international and domestic tourism markets;

- to create favorable conditions for attracting investments in the tourism industry for modernization of existing tourist facilities and creation of new ones and accommodation;

- to promote competitiveness of tourist services due to improvement of the quality of tourist services;

- to develop entrepreneurship in the tourism sector;

- to build and renovate museums, memorial sites, architectural monuments, to fix historic places that are often visited by tourists;

- to carry out advertising and information activities aimed at formation of the image of country’s tourist regions and promoting it to domestic and international tourist markets.

Enterprises overcome difficulties dictated by internal and external economic environment without adequate government assistance, without the necessary knowledge of the world experience in developing market economy as markets become increasingly competitive. However, international experience shows that recovery, stabilization and further development of the country's economy depends on competitiveness of specific producers and their products.

The theoretical and practical studies about development of competition and level of the enterprise strategy are dominated by researches aimed at studying the processes taking place within the company. The role of location is almost ignored both in the competition and the competitiveness. There is a tendency to underestimate the role of location in these matters. In a broader sense, a geographically compact cluster consisting of independent and informally linked enterprises and institutions is a strong organizational form, but still little studied in theory. The result of any system’s activity is defined by the efficiency. Most researchers consider it expedient to evaluate the system through the level of consumer service by defining a set of criteria indicators: M. Porter, D. Kelleher, A. Hobaybi, N. Peirce.

The system of qualitative criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the tourism cluster can be represented by the four groups of indicators: economic; science and technology; social; environmental. This system may be based on increasing the profitability of the tourism cluster.

Improved performance of the tourist cluster is influenced by economic, scientific and technical data. The economic indicators include sales gain; improving capacity utilization; income from infrastructure improvements; profit from introduction of inventions, patents, know-how; income from licensing activities; profit from the joint promotion of tourism products; attracting investments; reduction of investment payback period; reduction of terms of capital construction; improving resource utilization (labor productivity growth, increase capital productivity, accelerate turnover of circulating funds, etc.) [7, p.89].

Science and technology indicators: increasing specific weight of new information technologies; increasing specific weight of new advanced technological processes; increasing the ratio of production automation; improving the organizational level of production and labor; the number of registered copyright certificates; improving the competitiveness of enterprises and their tourism products on the markets with high effectual demand of population.

The economic effect of innovations is presented by social and environmental indicators. The social indicators include the revenue growth of tourism cluster members; increasing the degree of satisfaction of the physiological needs of cluster members; increasing the safety level of cluster members; increasing the degree of satisfaction of social and spiritual needs; increase in jobs; advanced training; improving the working environment and recreation; increasing life expectancy of cluster members.

Environmental indicators are presented by reduction of emissions of harmful components to the air, soil, water; reduction of waste production; enhancing and improving the ergonomics of production; improving ecological compatibility of tourist products; reduction of fines for violation of environmental laws and other regulations.

The criterion for management decision is the economic benefit. Indicators of tourism cluster effectiveness evaluation are measures to improve the quality of the system; they are the measures to improve technology, to organize tourist cluster, operational management. In this case, consumer achieves the effect at the expense of "transfering" high-quality input systems through the process of its output.

The effect obtained by a consumer due to consumption of a high-quality tourism product and therefore better met needs or higher quality products with the use of this tourism product (sold at a higher price or more by improving the quality of tourism product), in the face of a competitive environment is automatically distributed between the manufacturer and the consumer of tourism product through its price in the market.

At present, the international market of tourist services is a giant mechanism with a multi-billion dollar turnover and fierce competitive activity, so the first priority is to determine the tourist product that has features unique to Kazakhstan, and will be in demand. For Kazakhstan the tourism industry has become a priority and more attention is paid to development of inbound and domestic tourism, fascinating routes of cultural, educational, environmental, horse and health directions are being developed. "At the crossroads of worlds, in the heart of Eurasia" - these words have become a new tourist brand of Kazakhstan.

The fact that the growth rate of international tourism exceeds expectations, confirms that the tourist trips is now a part of the consumption patterns of an increasing number of people both in developing and advanced economies. This emphasizes the need to recognize tourism, which is an important catalyst for economic growth, export and job creation, as a major component of socio-economic development [8, p.128].

The tourism industry in Kazakhstan is considered the most promising and has a huge growth potential compared with other industries. This is facilitated by the adoption of a number of decrees and other legal acts, the "Concept of development of the tourism industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2020".

Fairly good planned, dynamic and professional development policy of the tourist services market ultimately leads to the competitiveness of Kazakhstan's tourist product in foreign markets.

Having analyzed the current state of tourism industry development, it is possible to suggest a range of government support measures aimed at improvement and development of tourist activity, the main of which are:

- development of tourist services infrastructure;

- preservation of cultural and historical monuments;

- improvement of material and technical base;

- improving the quality of tourist products and education in tourism;

- improvement of mechanism of normative - legal regulation of tourist services market;

- improvement of tourism development management;

- development of international cooperation.

In consideration of underdevelopment of tourist services market infrastructure, as well as limited financial resources, there is a need to identify the priorities of primary construction of a network of small hotels, guest houses, campsites and motels, restoration and construction of new enterprises for yurts production, giving national color to tours along the route of stay of foreign tourists, which will contribute to the revival of national crafts, increasing employment and reducing unemployment.

In the market of tourist services it is essential to improve the material and technical base, which should focus on:

- development of material and technical base of tourism by attracting domestic and foreign investments for reconstruction of existing and construction of new tourist facilities;

- competitive recovery in the market of air transport, development of passenger transport on road and rail transport;

- development of schemes for promising tourist accommodation facilities and infrastructure of the tourist services market on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan;

- control over land use and application of building standards in the areas of tourist business development;

- building hotel and service complex, as well as a network of tourist complexes, ethnographic museums and recreation areas corresponding to international standards;

- development of existing and potential tourism related infrastructure areas: telecommunications, water, electricity, sewerage and solid waste management;

- development of projects and construction of tourist facilities, including small and medium accommodation facilities, with a view to ensuring their use the whole-year.

References:

1. Raoul V. Bianchi, Marcus L. Stephenson. Deciphering tourism and citizenship in a globalized world Original Research ArticleTourism Management, Volume 39, December 2012, Pages 10-20.

2. Victoria M. Waligo, Jackie Clarke, Rebecca Hawkins. Implementing sustainable tourism: A multi-stakeholder involvement management framework. Original Research Article Tourism Management, Volume 36, June 2013, Pages 342-353.

3. Hilal Erkuş-Öztürk. The role of cluster types and firm size in designing the level of network relations: The experience of the Antalya tourism region. Original Research Article Tourism Management, Volume 30, Issue 4, August 2009. - Pages 589-597.

4. Statistical collection «Kazakhstan’s Tourism for 2010-2014». Astana, 2015. – 67 p.

5. Tosun G. Challenges of sustainable tourism development in the developing world: the case of Turkey, 22(3), 2001.

6. Pearce D. G. Tourism development in Paris: Public intervention. Annals of Tourism Research 25(2), 1998.

7. Shvets Yu.V. State Administration of tourist cluster // The modern scientific bulletin. – 2005. – № 1. – P. 77-84.

8. John Kelleher – Toronto: D.C. Heath and Company, 2003. – 327 p.