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Kazakhstan Wins ITB Award
Friday, 15 Mar, 2010
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Kazakhs and Koreans Celebrating 1st and 2nd place at ITB
Dagmar Schrieber of KTA talks to Valere Tjolle about the award and Kazakhstan’s ecotourism opportunities.
Kazakhstan won the award for the best Asian / Pacific exhibitor on the ITB. Said Dagmar Schrieber of KTA, “We are real happy about this. It´s an indicator for the successful work of the designer and booth building team and the Kazakhstan tour operators who took part.
Will this award help tourism in Kazakhstan?
Said Dagmar “I hope so, but I am not sure. Of course, this award means a bit attention for Kazakhstan. But only for some minutes … Tourism development is not a campaign, it´s a huge and permanent, constant work!”
“An impact would be possible, if we use the energy of this small but nice success for closing the big gap between the show on the ITB and other fairs and the real tourism in the country.”
“Improving the communication between the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the players of the still small tourism market in Kazakhstan. Our target is a real dialogue, more knowledge of the real problems of tourism in Kazakhstan and effective work on solution of there problems. It would be good to install a non bureaucratic ‘dialogue board’.“
“But there is some reason for optimism – the awarded exhibition booth shows this. After years of critics regarding exhibition booth design the new designer finally could convince the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, that it´s more important to focus the advertisement on traditions and nature, than, for example (like in the last years) on the booming new capital, the oil and gas sector or political things like chairmanship in the OSCE."
“It means the branding is getting better! We have to put the focus of the branding on nature tourism, better: ecotourism. I am sure, that ecotourism can contribute to nature protection in Kazakhstan. Here are three reasons:
- Ecotourism (as community based) can reduce poverty in the rural regions.
- People get a legal income, poaching, illegal woodcutting decreases.
- Ecotourism can improve transparency of using the preserved territories.
However: I have been to many nature reserves. Vast, empty landscapes, no people – and no big animals.
And then you suddenly find — lots of cartridge cases! These poachers are mostly NOT the local (rural) people. Cartridges are very expensive, such huge amounts of them local people cannot obtain for their small money. These are rich people, they give bribes to the rangers. Or they are, maybe, “high level” people “out of the validity of the law”.
Tourism is an interesting thing. It´s probably the most globalized branch of economy. It can bring a lot of damage, it can be like aggression or war, to the local people, to the nature. But if we do it in the right way, it can bring peace. We are responsible for this.
“Mahatma Gandhi said: If you wish to change the World, be (part of) the change. In Berlin on the ITB me and my colleagues of the NGO Ecomuseum in Kazakhstan took part in a meeting of ecotourism players of all over the World. This was a great feeling for us, be part of a global movement and feel the power of it. We found a lot of new friends. Thank you for this chance.”
“Our next step in Kazakhstan is to unite the dozens of ecotourism NGO´s into one platform. This will give us more ideas, understanding and more power. And more ‘weight’ in the dialogue with the government and sponsors. We will use the energy of this exhibition, the meetings, the global ecotourism community (and of the award) for improving our work!”
Kazakhstan is the size of Europe with a population as big as Holland’s. It’s one of the most beautiful and most sparsely-populated countries on Earth. Sitting between China’s western, and Russia’s eastern borders, Kazakhstan has an unbelievably deep cultural and social heritage.
Here the first wild apples were cultivated, the first tulips discovered, the land laid bare to mongul hordes and Russian gulags, ridden through and peopled by colourful horse-borne nomadic Kazakh tribes.
Situated just 4 hours from Moscow and Istanbul, and an entry point for the Silk Route, though relatively undiscovered, Kazakhstan has serious ecotourism potential, but only if developed sustainably.
The ITB sees the beginning of Kazakhstan’s flowering as a significant tourism destination – the prize is a significant achievement which gives an endorsement to its marketing effort.
By Dagmar Schreiber and Valere Tjolle
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