Comparative Analysis of Central Asian Tourism Product from Point of View of Turkish Travelers: A Case of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekista

Abstract

Central Asia (CA) region consist of five countries, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which is the core of Asian continent. Ancient Silk Road has played the critical role of connecting the East and West through the history and today. CA has a rich history, culture and nature conditions as pull factors for world tourism market. This region as a new destination is becoming more important in the international travel and tourism market. All five countries have been experiencing transition period and have been facing some domestic and international issues with respect to tourism perspective. In this study, Turkish travelers for different motivations ranging from business to vacation visiting Central Asia are asked to evaluate the region based on some personal and expectation attributes. The investigation includes some fundamental factors such as key desires to travel to Central Asia or some mind-set not visiting there. For this purpose, approximately 200 responses are gathered from persons traveling there for different motivations including business, travel and so on. Multi Dimensional Scaling is run in order to display graphically the attributes on two dimensional graphs. This research is a pioneer work that sheds light on the future studies that will be conducted by both academicians and practitioners. Also, it reflects the Turkish travelers’ expectations to CA region as a tourism destination. The main findings can be summarized as the key factors leading people either to travel CA or not to travel there by gender, country and some other personal attributes.