The Context of the Tourism Market in Kazakhstan

Abstract

This chapter is designed to reveal the development of the tourism sector in Kazakhstan as an example of the process of integrating Central Asia countries into the capitalist world economy at various levels in the post-Soviet period. The study aims to understand the effects of some contextual elements that affect the development process of the tourism sector in Kazakhstan. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with the managers of foreign tour operators operating in Kazakhstan. It is expected some context-based elements may be observed by the managers and to obtain some clues about the distinctive path of developing capitalist economy of the country. Following a brief literature review about the role of the state and tourism sector in Kazakhstan, the rest of the chapter includes the authors' findings on the characteristics of the institutional context of the tourism market in Kazakhstan.