Bureaucracy and problems of coordination in public-private travel partnerships

Abstract

Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. Despite this, the Kazakhstani economy
does not receive significant benefits from tourism. After leaving the Soviet Union, special state regulatory bodies
were created, special laws and policies on tourism were adopted, part of the existing infrastructure was updated and
the development of private business was stimulated. However, despite these efforts, Kazakhstan has not noticed the
rapid growth of tourism at the regional or international level.
Since the successful development of tourism directly depends on the coordinated work of its stakeholders, this
study is aimed at identifying the participation of stakeholders in the planning and development of tourism in Almaty,
Almaty region and Kazakhstan. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 48 tourism stakeholders
representing the public, private sector and voluntary organizations. The results of this study focus on five main
themes: networks between stakeholders, data collection methodology, barriers to human capital, and the role of
travel companies and universities in the tourism industry.
The results of this study showed a lack of a unified approach to governance at the regional level; in addition,
issues such as the relative lack of support for the tourism industry at different levels (despite prevailing status on
paper) and low levels of trust between various stakeholders are obstacles to the development of a successful tourism
industry in Kazakhstan.