Analysis of the tourism infrastructure of the cities of Central Kazakhstan

Abstract

Object: the research of the current state of the tourist infrastructure of the cities of Central Kazakhstan, in particular, the analysis of urban transport infrastructure, as well as the main indicators of the activities of accommodation facilities during the quarantine period due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: for achieving the goal of the research, general scientific methods were widely used, in particular the method of content analysis, which made it possible to organize and structure the main scientific research related to the study of urban tourist infrastructure; method of analysis, which made it possible to assess the state of urban transport infrastructure and accommodation facilities in the region; a generalization method aimed at establishing existing relationships between the considered economic objects and phenomena; the method of graphic interpretation, which made it possible to visualize the results obtained.

Results: the analysis of the state tourist infrastructure in the cities of the Karaganda region was carried out, special emphasis was made on the research of urban transport infrastructure, the dynamics of passenger traffic by mode of transport in conditions of quarantine restrictions were given, the availability of urban transport was reflected in terms of the possibility of renting cars for tourists. In connection with the increased demand for domestic tourism, the main motives of travel, geographic directions and the structure of expenses of domestic tourists have been studied. The main indicators of accommodation facilities (volume of services, occupancy, average cost, etc.) were also analyzed, the dynamics of the number of visitors served by categories and types of accommodation facilities was reflected, the impact of the pandemic on some aspects of the activities of accommodation companies was shown.

Conclusions: the results obtained made it possible to give a comprehensive assessment of the state of the tourist infrastructure, namely, the transport and accommodation infrastructure in the cities of the Karaganda region, to identify the level of availability of tourist services in terms of car rental, the availability of category hotels and the level of their service.

Introduction

In the pandemic year 2020, the number of tourists visiting Kazakhstan decreased by almost 4 times and amounted to about 2 million people. For comparison, in 2019, this figure was 8,5 million. Of course, the flow of outbound tourists has also decreased — by 3 times compared to 2019 (in 2020 — 2,8 million, in 2019 — 10,7 million). Indicators for domestic tourism, as in many popular world destinations, are negative, that is, there is a 3-fold reduction^[1] [2].

In the Karaganda region as well as throughout the country, the pandemic caused by COVID-19 had a negative impact on the development of the tourism sector: due to quarantine, as well as other restrictive measures, the tourist flow decreased, there was a sharp drop in the income of representatives of the tourist business, many travel agencies stopped their activities, some have reoriented themselves to domestic tourism. Nevertheless, the domestic tourist market continues to develop, and the level of satisfaction of potential tourists depends on the quality of the tourist infrastructure, the rational development of tourist resources is taking place, the inflow of investments and the number of tourists is increasing.

An integral multifactorial assessment of the tourist and recreational potential of Central Kazakhstan, carried out earlier by the authors based on official statistics, showed that the high value of the potential of this region is achieved due to the parameters «The provision of tourist infrastructure» and «Socio-economic factors». However, an assessment based on an expert survey showed the opposite results: Central Kazakhstan, according to experts, has a low potential, even though they rated «The provision of tourist infrastruc- ture» highly.

The conducted research revealed a number of problems, including information security in tourism, there are practically no free Wi-Fi access points, there are constant interruptions in cellular communication, cellular network operators are not always provided with the 4G standard; many tourist sites do not have webpages with the ability to purchase entrance tickets online; low availability of payments in PayPass mode; there are practically no electronic reference systems and CityPass in cities and many others (Mamraeva & Tashenova, 2020).

Literature Review

In modern conditions in the production of tourist services special attention is paid to the tourism infrastructure. It is the variety of elements of the tourist infrastructure that allows us to offer potential tourists the necessary services. In this regard, the study of the constituent elements of the tourist infrastructure is of relevance.

As an interesting international experience in the development of tourism infrastructure most foreign researchers give the dominant role to the state management of the tourism industry; in their opinion, the quality and availability of tourism infrastructure depends on the size of public investment (Abdullah et al., 2014; Goel et al., 2010; Nezdoyminov, 2016). O. Adeola, O. Evans, using a dynamic panel gravity model, studied the statistical relationship between ICT and tourism infrastructure, and came to the conclusion that as ICT grows, so does the number of tourists (Adeola et al., 2020). The importance of e-commerce in the development of tourism infrastructure is noted by European researchers (Constanta et al., 1998). J. Khadaroo & B. Seetanah, Z. Shafeeyari & M. Rahmani, J.K. Zhang highlight the role and importance of transport infrastructure in increasing tourist demand and developing international tourism (Khadaroo et al., 2007; Shafeeyari, 2016; Zhang et al., 2021). Historical, natural and cultural resources form the basis of a competitive tourism infrastructure (Klyuchkovych, 2017; Mandic et al., 2018). The impact of tourism, especially tourism infrastructure, on the development of related industries is reflected in the works of Chinese scientists (Zhao, 2016). The difference in tourist infrastructure between megacities and small towns is also of scientific interest (Rogerson et al., 2017; Richards, 2016; Tokarchuk et al., 2017; Timon, 2010).

Research results of M. Sum have shown that infrastructure elements provide the direct tourist satisfaction (Sum, 2008). Tourism infrastructure is conventionally divided into 3 categories:

• direct and indirect infrastructure. Direct infrastructure refers to those establishments that will be directly used by tourists, such as hotels and tourist attractions. Whereas indirect infrastructure refers to infrastructure that can be used by tourists but is not specifically intended for tourists, such as police and medical services, telecommunications and transport networks;
• physical and information infrastructure. For example, a hotel, theater, and railway network are physical objects. However, they cannot operate on their own without good management, service, and, more importantly, technology, manpower and information. They are software-based infrastructure;
• legal, economic, financial and political infrastructure. While they may not be directly consumed by tourists, they have a strong and significant impact on the long-term development of the tourism industry.

Particular attention should be paid to the works on the development of a methodology for assessing the development of tourism infrastructure (Kuncova et al., 2018; Kinash et al., 2019). In the process of planning and creating urban tourist routes, an important role is assigned to modern technologies, among which bikesharing systems are gaining popularity, so, in 2017, a comprehensive study was carried out on the use of this system in the world and in Kazakhstan (Mamrayeva et al., 2017).

C. Lim, L. Zhu, & T.T.R. Koo explore the impact of tourism infrastructure on the demand for inbound tourism (Lim et al., 2019). The study was conducted on the example of Singapore, using a panel of 30 markets between 2000 and 2015, scientists showed that tourist demand is insensitive to prices, but showed a direct relationship with tourist income.

Thus, relying on such basic conditions for the development of tourism as natural-climatic and cultural- historical resources, the tourist infrastructure contributes to the development of the territory and the rational use of resources, serving tourists, creating the necessary and sufficient level of comfort in their places of stay.

Methods

For achieving the goal of the research, general scientific methods were used, including:

• the method of content analysis, which made it possible to organize and structure the main scientific research related to the study of urban tourism infrastructure;
• method of analysis, which made it possible to assess the state of urban transport infrastructure and accommodation facilities in the region;
• generalization method is aimed at establishing existing relationships between the considered economic objects and phenomena;
• a method of graphic interpretation, which made it possible to visually present the results obtained: segmentation of internal visitors by purpose and direction of travel, the proportion of visitors served by type of accommodation, etc.

Results

Transport service for tourists is one of the components of the tourism infrastructure, which forms the link between the individual elements of the tourism industry.

Central Kazakhstan occupies a stable third place in Kazakhstan in terms of passenger traffic, yielding only to the cities of Almaty and Nur-Sultan. So, for example, in 2019, in the Karaganda region, 10,4 % of passengers or 2,474,030 million people of the total country indicator (23832,1 million people) were transported by all modes of transport^*. At the same time, almost half (58 %) of passengers used bus transportation, this type of ground transport for the analyzed year transported 1429,4 million people. In total in the region, according to official statistics, there are 5823 buses in the bus fleet, 42 % of which are owned by individual owners who practice private transport^[3] [4]. However, it should be noted that in 2020, the volume of passenger traffic in the republic decreased by 65 % and amounted to 8386,5 million people^[5] due to quarantine restrictions in the context of a pandemic. Passenger traffic in the Karaganda region also decreased by 64 %; in 2020, 896,1 million people were transported^[6] [7]. If we consider these indicators for the 1st half of 2021, 198,5 million people were transported during this period, which is 73,5 % lower compared to the corresponding period of 2020.

A decrease was observed in the following types of transport: air (-50,2 %), buses (-60,7 %), taxis (84,5 %); railway transportation increased significantly (+ 41,7 %), and a slight increase was also shown by the volume of tram transportation (+1,6) ^**.

In urban tourism, road transport plays an important role, in particular the availability of taxi services, car sharing or car rental.

In Karaganda, taxi services are offered by about 40 taxi companies. Car sharing services are not yet available, but tourists can use car rental. More than 30 companies operate in the car rental market in Karaganda, mainly providing drivers for celebrations, banquets, business meetings, city tours, etc.

Most often, it is the service «Rent a car without a driver» that is interesting and convenient for a potential tourist, which allows them to plan a route, travel time and much more. Among the few companies that provide cars without a driver, in Karaganda one can mention the following companies: «Car rental № 1», «Astoria», «ELITE AUTO». These companies can be easily found on the Internet, specifying in the search engine «Rent a car in Karaganda». The companies offer more than 30 cars from economy to business class, there are free additional services, in particular, child seat rental, etc. An important factor is the availability of online booking and cashless payments. There are some restrictions on the terms of the lease, as well as on the territory of movement: inside the city and no further than 50 km from the city (Table 1).

Table 1. Information about some car rental companies in the Karaganda region

In 2020, a nationwide sample statistical survey of 2,035 households in the Karaganda region was carried out on travel expenses. Based on this study it was revealed that the number of internal visitors who made trips was 683,8 thousand people, of which 95 % traveled for personal purposes. The number of visitors was 50,6 thousand people, of which 49,2 thousand people (97,1 %) traveled for personal purposes. The expenses of tourists traveling for personal purposes mainly fell on the purchase of goods (33,6 %), transportation costs (23,5 %), food (20,8 %), payment for hotels and other places of residence — 10,3 %. Families spent 3,4 % of the total budget on entertainment and cultural events.

Residents of the Karaganda region mainly travel around the country to visit friends and relatives, rest, receive medical and health procedures (Figure 1). The same trend is observed in the analyzed cities of the region.

According to this survey, 40 % of the region's residents prefer to travel within Kazakhstan by their own car, 24 % by train. Air transport is the least likely to be chosen.

One of the main components of the tourist infrastructure is the accommodation of visitors. According to official statistics, in 2020, 247 accommodation facilities operated in the Karaganda region, mainly hotels without categories (56 %) and other places (41 %) (Table 2).

Table 2. The number of placements and the number of visitors served by category in the context of the cities of Karaganda, Temirtau, Zhezkazgan, Balkhash in 2020

If we look at the geographical principle, the most of the places of accommodation are located in Karaganda — 33 % and in Balkhash — 14 %. According to the statistical data for 2020, there are 5-star hotel, but according to the international booking service booking.com, there are already 2 of them in 2021: located in the city of Karaganda: the «Cosmonaut» Hotel complex and the «Senator» Hotel. There are 3 hotels with the category 4-star in the region: «Ar Nuvo», «Voyage» (Karaganda), «Baikonur» (Zhezkazgan). There are no category hotels in the cities of Temirtau and Balkhash. It should be noted that the listed hotels, according to booking.com, are highly rated by visitors, so, for example, out of 10 possible points, the «Senator» Hotel was rated 9,3 (excellent), the «Art Novo» Hotel — 9 points (excellent). The assessment considers such factors as: location, cleanliness, staff, comfort, facilities, value for money, free Wi-Fi. Of course, hotels without categories constitute tangible competition with category ones, not inferior to them in terms of comfort, location and prices. This is evidenced by the number of visitors served by them, in 2020 alone 68 % of the total number of visitors in the region stayed in them. However, if we compare it with the indicators of 2019, we can see that quarantine has become the main factor in the decline in demand for accommodation services, the demand has decreased by almost 40 %.

On the market of accommodation services in the Karaganda region, a potential tourist is presented with a large number of places of residence: from hostels to highly comfortable hotels (Table 3). Another thing that should be noted is that there are no hotels from international chains in the region.

Note: Compiled on the basis of data from the Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Karaganda region

Table 3. Number of placements by type in the context of the cities of Karaganda, Temirtau, Zhezkazgan and Balkhash in 2020

79

The research shows that in the region hotels, bungalows, country houses, cottages, small houses and apartments are mainly in demand (Figure 3). Almost 90 % of visitors lived in them. Hostels are gaining popularity. In 2021, there are 6 of them and they are located in the city of Karaganda: Hostel «Ekonom» (presented in booking.com and has a high rating — 8,6), «Q-Hostel», «Chemodan» Hostel, Hostel «Good Sleep»; in Temirtau: Hostel «Sky Aktau», «Family hostel». Prices range from 2000 to 5000 tenge per day.

As noted above, the quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic practically stopped the activities of service enterprises, in particular, the volume of services provided by accommodation facilities decreased by 40 %, the number of visitors served by more than 40 %, the occupancy rate of hotels decreased to 19,6 % against 26 % in 2019 (Table 4).

Table 4. The main indicators of placements in the context of the cities of Karaganda, Temirtau, Zhezkazgan, Balkhash in 2019–2020

The occupancy rate of hotels in the Karaganda region decreased by 6 % due to lockdowns and other restrictions related to the pandemic. Low hotel occupancy is observed in the cities of Temirtau and Balkhash, — 11,2 % and 12,4 %, respectively in 2020. At the same time, the average cost of an overnight stay in Temirtau hotels is higher than in other analyzed cities.

To restore the tourism industry in the country, namely, the flow of visitors, according to Kazakh National Tourism, it is planned to launch 57 investment projects with a total value of over 455 billion tenge.

Thus, new jobs will be created, accommodation facilities will be built and restored. At the same time, work is underway to implement the project and attract investors for the development of tourism in destinations that are included in the list of the most popular in the country. Also, to support the tourism industry the Resource Center «Kazakhstan Travel and Tourism Council» was created, designed to accompany innovative programs in the field of national tourism, in particular, to provide services to entrepreneurs in support of tourism projects, training in project management^[8].

Discussions

Questions on the application of certain scientific approaches to the study of urban tourism infrastructure are controversial. Sectoral, territorial and functional approaches are distinguished. In our opinion, these approaches should be applied in an integrated manner. Together, these approaches form the methodological basis for the study of the tourist infrastructure of the territory (city). The approaches can be different, for example, ecological, economic, historical, etc.

Future scientific research of the authors will be continued, in particular, other important components of the tourist infrastructure of the cities of Central Kazakhstan will be studied: the activities of tour operators and travel agents, catering facilities, trade, recreation and entertainment facilities, excursion routes offered by tourist companies in the domestic tourist market and presented on the Internet.

Conclusions

The results obtained made it possible to give a comprehensive assessment of the state of the tourist infrastructure, namely, transport and accommodation infrastructure in the cities of the Karaganda region, to identify the level of availability of tourist services in terms of car rental, the availability of category hotels and the level of their service according to the international booking service booking.com. Dynamic analysis of the main indicators of accommodation facilities showed the level of influence of quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Grant No. AP09261199).

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