Tourism is one of the promising sectors in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, the rich country of Central Asia, draws attention with its investments in tourism. One of the leading tourism facilities in Kazakhstan is InterContinental Hotel Almaty. InterContinental Hotel Almaty, having 27 years of experience in the hospitality sector, told Turcomoney about the developments and goals in the tourism sector.

Mehmet Birgen, General Manager of InterContinental Hotel Almaty, has 27 years of experience in the hospitality sector. Birgen, who decided to continue his professional business life in tourism and hotel management in Kazakhstan in 2007, has witnessed the development of the country in the field of tourism. Birgen, who draws attention to the great potential of the tourism sector in Kazakhstan, says “The tourism sector is among the promising sectors of the country”. Mehmet Birgen answered the questions of Serhat Baş, Central Asia and Caucasus Editorial Director of Turcomoney Magazine.

- Mr Birgen, how many years have you been living in Kazakhstan? Can you tell us about your career in the tourism sector and the work you have done in Kazakhstan so far?

BİRGEN - I started my hotel career at Ankara Merit Altınel Hotel for the first time in 1994 After graduating from -Bilkent University Tourism and Hotel Management Department in 1993. Afterward, I worked as a senior manager at Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn hotels in Ataköy, Istanbul, between 1997 and 2007, respectively. I was appointed as Deputy General Manager for the Holiday Inn Hotel opened in Almaty in 2007 by the InterContinental Hotel

Group. So for the first time, I had the experience of opening a hotel. I worked at the InterContinental Almaty Hotel for a year, that is, as the Deputy General Manager again in 2010 after opening the hotel in 2009. I worked as Deputy General Manager in this hotel for 8 years, and then I was appointed by the IHG Group as General Manager again to the Holiday Inn Almaty Hotel. I worked as a General Manager at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Istanbul after working for a year. I returned to the InterContinental Almaty Hotel as the General Manager a year later. I have been carrying out the same duty since the beginning of 2020. I have been serving in the hospitality sector for about 27 years.

I have worked to increase the efficiency, profitability, market share, and guest satisfaction of the enterprises I have worked in approximately 12 years in Kazakhstan. I have worked on the complete implementation and control of both service and fire and life safety standards of the InterContinental Hotel Group and on the development of their careers by providing in-house training to the existing personnel.

- When did InterContinental Hotel Almaty start serving? Can you provide information about your hotel concept, service understanding, and target audience?

BİRGEN - Our hotel was opened after Kazakhstan gained its full independence. It started to serve as a five-star Regent Ankara Hotel in 1996. Our hotel is one of the first and most important international enterprises with 100% Turkish investment. A franchise agreement was concluded with the InterContinental

Hotel Group in 2004. It has continued to serve as the InterContinental Almaty Hotel since then. Our hotel serves more businessmen in terms of its structure and concept. We can generally summarise our target audience as banking, finance, oil, natural gas and mining, airlines, international pharmaceutical companies, foreign government officials, technology companies, local corporate companies, and families.

KAZAKHSTAN IS THE 9TH LARGEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

- What can you say about the development and potential of the Kazakhstani tourism sector?

BİRGEN - Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world thanks to its history, geographical location, and size.

Located in the centre of Eurasia, it is also the largest land country in the world. Kazakhstan has a very rich tourism and recreational potential. Significant investments have been made in Nur Sultan in recent years, especially with Expo for this reason. Likewise, large tourism facilities built and planned to continue on the coast of the Caspian Sea in the west of Kazakhstan will bring new opportunities for the sector. Likewise, the opening of international flights with the new airport built in Turkistan shows that the tourism sector in Kazakhstan will be one of the promising sectors of the economy. However, traditional areas of the world’s tourism market have already reached the limits of recreational capacity. Therefore, potential tourism areas constitute an important opportunity for Kazakhstan with the growth in tourism. However, the development and sustainability of tourism in a country depends primarily on the development of an educated and qualified workforce in addition to the positive and promising projects I mentioned above. Both vocational courses should be opened and training should be planned to increase the quality of the existing tourism workforce in order to train the necessary qualified workforce and on-the-job training for this reason.

One of the biggest problems of tourism in Kazakhstan can be explained by “inadequate demand”. Effective marketing needs to be performed and a common marketing strategy needs to be developed, especially among the countries of the region. An innovative image strategy should be launched for Kazakhstan and product development, special marketing, and pricing arrangements should be performed. A media promotion should be launched for the target countries, especially on the Internet as well as on the written and visual media. Tax exemptions should be applied to foreign travel agencies, airline companies, and banks; visa procedures should be simplified for foreign tourists. Airport personnel should be selected from people who speak foreign languages and are tourism conscious as much as possible.

- Does your group have other hotels? Do you plan new investments in tourism and hotel management in the coming period?

BİRGEN - No investment is planned in this field in the short and long term even though the group we are affiliated with, that is, the owner of the property, does not have other hotels in both Kazakhstan and Turkey. However, it is planned to make serious investments in our current hotel in terms of renovation.

THE PANDEMIC CRISIS HAS ALSO AFFECTED US NEGATIVELY

- To what extent have you achieved your goals in 2020? And how has the pandemic affected you? Were there any periods when you had to close your hotel?

BİRGEN - The pandemic crisis, which we are experiencing globally and is expected to happen for a certain period of time, has unfortunately negatively affected the hospitality sector and our hotel, as in all service sectors. However, the accommodation of the flag-carrying international airline crews continued. In addition, new demands have come to our hotel from airline cargo companies due to the global quarantine. In this process, we have maximised all our cleaning and hygiene rules and standards unlike our other competing hotels in the city. We continued to provide limited service without closing our hotel by taking these measures. In fact, we had more occupancy than we expected in the first three months of the pandemic.

5-STAR BUSINESS HOTELS WILL NOT BE THE SAME

- Can you provide a projection for the tourism sector in Kazakhstan for the upcoming period? What is the estimated number of tourists visiting Kazakhstan in 2021 and the following years?

BİRGEN - Perhaps the most difficult question you have ever asked. The pandemic will continue for a while. We do not have very concrete information about how guest habits will continue after the pandemic both this year and the following years for this reason.

But I expect the hospitality sector will experience the effects of the pandemic for many years to come. I guess especially 5-star business hotels will not be the same as before.

THE MINISTRY OF TOURISM SUPPORTED US DURING THE PANDEMIC PERIOD

- Does the Ministry of Tourism of Kazakhstan have incentives for investments in the hotel and other tourism-entertainment-food and beverage sectors? Were there support packages explained and given due to the pandemic?

BİRGEN - The Kazakhstan government provided limited assistance to all other medium and small-sized enterprises, as well as to both food and beverage sector employees and business owners during the pandemic as in other countries. Deferral of income taxes and loans for a certain period of time can be counted as cash payments made to employees of businesses such as cafes and restaurants that are closed during the pandemic among these support packages.

- From which countries are the tourists staying in your hotels? Do you find the quality of the service you provide successful when you evaluate it based on the quality of your human resources, infrastructure power, and the adequacy of your suppliers?

BİRGEN - The location of the city of Almaty and regular organisations, our hotel served guests from almost every country in the world due to the fact that our hotel was a business hotel before the pandemic. We can count the citizens of countries such as Turkey, Russia,

USA, China, Korea, India, especially the citizens of European countries among these. However, there have been significant differences in the country statistics of foreign guests coming to the country due to the limited quarantine and business visits during and after the pandemic.

Our hotel was opened in Almaty after Kazakhstan declared its independence. It has always set an example with its quality workforce that has been trained for 25 years in both service quality and service sector so far. The fact that our hotel is an international brand with strong service standards, the vision of our hotel’s investor, and our local or foreign managers who have served as managers in our hotel during this period have a great share in this. It will be one of my biggest goals to continue this mission during my tenure as a General Manager who has the same vision and excitement.

- What are InterContinental Hotel Almaty’s targets for 2021? I guess you made your plans knowing the pandemic would continue. Will this cause you to narrow your goals by forcing you to be more in control?

BİRGEN - Our plans for 2021 are to continue the savings measures we took at the beginning of the pandemic last year with determination and without compromising our quality. It will be to go into operational contraction as much as possible and to improve our market share by developing more aggressive sales and marketing strategies.

DOING BUSINESS IN KAZAKHSTAN IS ADVANTAGEOUS

- What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of doing business in Kazakhstan?

BİRGEN - First of all, I would like to state that I am very happy to be in Kazakhstan, to be a part of this society, and to contribute to the development of the hospitality sector and I have never lost my excitement. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages of doing business in every country in the world. However, I have experienced that the advantages of doing business here are more than the disadvantages during this time to be honest.