This was stated by the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the NCE RK "Atameken" during the presentation of the draft State Program for the Development of Inbound and Domestic Tourism of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty, as well as the sectoral bill.

The developed state program is aimed at increasing the inbound and domestic tourist flow with a focus on key points of growth. The priority areas of the Program are the development of tourism infrastructure; liberalization of visa and migration policies; increase of transport accessibility of tourist facilities and destinations; promotion of the tourist brand; increasing the effectiveness of state support and improving standards of service and staffing.

“The National Chamber supports the Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the issue that the program should have effective measures, not just indicating strategic directions. The real support measures for entrepreneurs in the field of tourism should be spelled out. Here we would ask for a little more operational measures that a business can use in work here and now,” - the Deputy Chairman of the Board of "Atameken" Olzhas Ordabayev said.

He stressed that strategic issues are necessary and important, but the program does not have so many tools for small business.

“Although historically it can be a lot in tourism - these are small guest houses, and small companies that organize inbound tourism for foreigners, and many others. What does business say? It comes from the hot-button issues of its consumers, and the consumer, especially the entry one, complains about the following things: issues of an infrastructural nature may be very threadbare, but the issue of sanitary facilities is constantly relevant. A number of questions are related to living conditions, the issue of categorizing hotels, which need to be pulled up to a serious level, to receive "stars". There is also the problem of service, but there is already a question of educating people, how universities, colleges and training centers teach specialists. By the way, we should take an example from our neighbors - a very effective program for the development of tourism has been developed and is being implemented in Uzbekistan,” - the Deputy Chairman of the Board of the National Chamber stated.

“Licensing of tourism activities is one of the most pressing issues that are being discussed. We would like to be a little tougher in building barriers to entry into the industry. Curiously enough, it is business that requests not to cancel licensing. Proceeding from the fact that there must be some kind of quality barriers to entering the market, so that anyone could work poorly. On behalf of state bodies, licensing is proposed to be withdrawn; they are also introducing this amendment with good intentions in order to attract as many companies as possible to the market. But we believe that it is better to leave government regulation in the form of licensing as a barrier to entry,” - Olzhas Ordabayev concluded.

The event was moderated by Yerlan Kozhagapanov, Vice-Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan, Kairat Sadvakasov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the KazakhTourism National Company, Gulnar Kurbanbayeva, President of the International Agency for Effective Management and Development of Competitiveness, program developers, international consultants, representatives of the tourist community, government agencies and akimats, as well as public figures and all interested parties. The event was moderated by Yerlan Kozhagapanov, Vice-Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan, Kairat Sadvakasov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the KazakhTourism National Company, Gulnar Kurbanbayeva, President of the International Agency for Effective Management and Development of Competitiveness, program developers, international consultants, representatives of the tourist community, government agencies and akimats, as well as public figures and all interested parties.

Note:Today, the State program for the development of domestic and inbound tourism is being developed, as well as a new bill on the tourism industry. To develop these two documents, a Headquarters was created on behalf of the Government, which included senior officials from the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the KazakhTourism national company, the NCE RK Atameken, international consultants and involved experts from the industry.

From July 18 - the beginning of the Headquarters, more than 50 meetings were held with the tourist community on all types of tourism: MICE, medical, children and youth, various types of social, ethnic and agro-tourism, etc., a separate meeting with representatives of artisans have been held. In total, over 300 proposals and comments were received during this time. All of them are carefully considered and many of them are included in the draft State Program and the Law on Tourism.