The second meeting in preparation for the draft State Program for the Development of the Tourism Industry for 2019-2023 was held on the "Atameken" site

The main topic of the agenda of the second meeting was the issue of improving the visa and migration regime.

«"Today, travel companies and hotels accepting foreign tourists face a number of problems. The main issues are the preparation of documents for visa invitations, obtaining ADS-visas, registration of foreign citizens and their location in national parks. The issue of the Berkut portal, which is still inactive, remains acute as well as the problem of paying fines for violation of the law. The business has accumulated a lot of systemic issues that need to be resolved in the framework of the development of the State Program,"- Yulia Yakupbayeva, Deputy Chairman of the Board of "Atameken" NCE RK, said.

In turn, Vice Minister of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerlan Kozhagapanov noted that over the past few years state bodies have taken a number of effective measures to improve the visa regime jointly with the National Chamber of Entrepreneurs. This includes the introduction of a visa-free regime for 64 countries around the world, a reduction of visas issuance terms and the introduction of a 72-hour visa-free transit stopping in Kazakhstan for citizens of China and India.

During the presentation of the main proposals for improving the visa and migration regime, the experts of the MCS RK noted that over the past 5 years Kazakhstan has lagged behind neighboring countries in terms of tourism development indicators.

"Kazakhstan has not improved and besides lost its positions on such indicators as "international openness", "marketing", and “sphere of tourist services”, “investments and transport infrastructure”. Today, key markets for Kazakhstan are Russia, India and China, which showed an increase of 30%. Also the list includes countries of the Middle East, Western Europe and North America", - expert Ilya Savin explained.

Moreover, the expert noted that Kazakhstan retains the potential for further liberalization of the visa regime. As an example, Ilya Savin suggested using the experience of Azerbaijan. So, in 2015, citizens of Iraq began to receive visas upon arrival in Baku. Due to this, the tourist flow grew by 30 times and reached the level of 62 thousand people. Further, in 2016, the procedure for obtaining visas upon arrival was abolished, but a consul residence was opened in Baghdad. In the same year, the number of tourists increased to 83 thousand.

Based on the results of studying international experience, the headquarters suggested changing the procedure for obtaining a visa for citizens of China, India and Iran. For the countries of the Middle East, it is proposed to consider a visa-free regime or the issue of visas upon arrival.

"We offer the order similar to Schengen. For short-term visas for up to a year, citizens do not need to make out an invitation, only a certificate from their place of work, movement on bills, a voucher from the hotel. We propose to consider a simplified procedure for obtaining visas for wealthy tourists, pensioners, schoolchildren, tourists sent by means of trade unions and enterprises," - Ilya Savin suggested.

Moreover, within the framework of developing the state program, the headquarters suggested considering the introduction of the "E-hotel" system based on the experience of Uzbekistan. According to the staff member, the system makes it possible to register "seamlessly" all foreigners who stayed in camping sites, hotels and other places of accommodation. Full registration gives the authorized body statistics on the occupancy of hotels. In turn, access to the system is also provided to security agencies.

In turn, Yulia Yakupbaeva made an alternative proposal:

"In terms of protection, we will have certain requirements for cybersecurity, a system for personal data protection. At the moment, we have a "Berkut" portal, which helps accommodations to register foreigners. On the other hand, the question arises how this new "E-hotel" solution will help the situation, if there is no high-quality access to the Internet in the regions? How will the information be perceived by the NSC? We have our own portal, we just need to refine the existing system. It will probably be better and cheaper," - she offered

Representatives of hotels confirmed the existence of problems in the part of electronic registration through the visa-immigration portal of the "Berkut" unified information system.

The next problem, which was voiced by the business representatives, was a large number of refusals to issue group ADS-visas. According to Aia Kusainova, President of National Association of the Tourism Industry ALE, in case of refusal for 1-2 people in the group, the travel agency needs to re-submit documents, which entails considerable time and financial costs. In turn, the migration service does not name the reasoned reason for the refusal. Moreover, statistics show that refusals in invitations reach 30-40%, including for so-called favorable tourists. Business offered to move towards electronic visas.

In turn, the representative of the NSC RK reminded that according to statistics more than 15 thousand invitations have been submitted, of which only about 500 citizens were refused. According to the representative of the agency, in order to ensure security and taking into account technical opportunities, the introduction of an electronic visa is premature.

The Director General of "National Travel Company "Kochevnik" LLP Bakdaulet Tashmanov voiced out the opinion on the humanization of the penal system for violation of migration legislation

"Everyone knows that if the migration legislation is violated, the tourist is removed from the flight and the penalty is further processed. This process is not simple and, as a rule, the reaction on the part of the incoming person is negative. We suggest, in case of the first violation, to make a warning for the representatives of the tourist business if the violation lasts no more than five days. Repeated violation implies a fine without withdrawal from the voyage, and the third violation implies sanctions in full".

In turn, the director of "Premier Tour" LLP Valeriya Topolnyak added that according to the Code of Administrative Offenses, the first violation entails only one kind of punishment, which is further aggravated in subsequent violations. However, according to the migration rules, if the immigration regime is violated for the first time, the company is deprived of the opportunity to invite foreign tourists for one year, which undermines entrepreneurial activity and restricts the provisions of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Also, a procedure of notification about arriving foreigners caused stormy discussion. As Bakdaulet Tashmanov added, hotels may not notify migration services up to three days of residence. However, there is a question of registering a tourist in case when he lives no more than three days in each hotel, but in general the period of stay exceeds the permissible period.

The tour operators also have questions about the form and mechanism of filing a notice. So, as part of the development of the State Program, it is proposed to consider the possibility of filing a notice in electronic form, which, according to the business, will greatly facilitate the procedure.

In addition, the problem of foreign citizens' staying in the border and water protection zones was touched upon. According to the President of the Association of Tourist Agencies of Kazakhstan Assel Nurkebayeva, the Big Almaty Lake, which is located in these zones, is visited daily by a large number of foreign tourists. Here, according to the Resolution of the Government, regime restrictions on border controls have been removed and the presence of foreigners at a tourist facility is allowed without a special permit. However, as practice shows, representatives of controlling authorities often charge foreign tourists for fictitious fines.

Following the meeting, it was agreed that all comments and suggestions will be taken into account and reflected in the Draft State Program for the Development of Tourism until 2023 and the Concept of the bill. Moreover, the participants agreed to set up a working group on visa and migration issues, and also requested a written position of the security forces regarding the issues and proposals voiced.