The National Parks and firms discussed the issues of cooperation at the site of "Atameken"
This information was announced at a meeting at NCE on discussion of the general plans of development of tourist infrastructure of the state national natural parks of Almaty region and Almaty city.

As it was noted by the Deputy Director of the Department of service sector of NCE RK Karlygash Altaeva, given the large number of barriers in the industry's development at the legislative level, the issues of the of Tourism Development were submitted by the National Chamber to the Prime Minister. On his behalf established an interdepartmental working group chaired by Askar Mamin, at which were discussed all the issues of the tourism industry. So, NCE raised the issue of the simplification of issue of land plots on the territory of national parks. Currently, the legislative amendments were developed to simplify the procedure of issuing land. In the case of the adoption of the draft law, the need to get a permit from the authorized body and approval of the draft design and the agreement will be excluded.

"In addition, for the development of social and youth tourism, NCE offered to provide benefits to participants of the Great Patriotic War, invalids of all groups and children up to 18 years, when visiting specially protected natural territories. The Ministry of Agriculture supported the proposal and intends to discuss it with the Ministry of national economy", - said the representative of NCE.

"Atameken" also initiated bush meetings for representatives of the tourist market, as travel agencies are implementers of the tourist routes of the National Park and promote their tourist potential.

"Today, 255 routes were developed at national parks, we think that will continue to develop them. In the future, the Committee plans to develop a road map of interaction of specially protected natural areas with tourist companies of with the participation of NCE RK", - said Acting Chairman of the Committee of Forestry and Fauna of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Marlen Ainabekov.

At a meeting the National Parks "Altyn Emel", "Kolsay kolderі", "Charyn", "Zhongar-Alatau" and "Ile-Alatau" presented their master plans for infrastructure development. Managers of protected areas presented their tourist attractions, tourist routes and facilities, which are planned to be built in the framework of new tourist routes, and also voiced the problems hampering the development of national parks. One of the key - is bad roads, this was stated by representatives of travel agencies.

"Recently we with the Ministry of Investment and Development developed a comprehensive plan for the development of resort areas. Consideration of proposals of local executive bodies showed that there is a problem on the roads within the national parks. But there are difficulties in terms of funding. For example, akimat of  Pavlodar region is ready to invest in the repair of roads on the territory of Bayanaul National Park, but by the Budget Code contains no provisions, allowing to spend the regional budget for infrastructure development of national parks of national importance. In this regard, we intend to initiate amendments to the Budget Code, so that regional budgets could be spend for roads at national parks upon availability of funds", - commented Karlygash Altaeva.

Travel agency actively raised the following issues: access to the territory of national parks and travel around the park; rules for visiting and stay of organized tourist groups on the territory of national parks; availability of information; creation of infrastructure at holiday destinations. In addition, they made a number of proposals for the creation of optimal tourist routes.

In turn, the president of the Metropolitan Association of Tourism Rysty Karabaeva drew attention to three points in the work of the national parks. First, in her words, in these areas there is no respect for nature, as evidenced by the garbage and lack of pointers about the rules of behavior in the protected area. Secondly, according to Karabaeva, national parks miss the opportunity to earn money for extra services, which include, for example, horseback riding, panoramic sites, the purchase of binoculars, etc. And, thirdly, according to the head of the association, there is not enough information about the Kazakh national parks.

As Rysty Karabaeva informed, the Association together with NCE RK plans to organize a trip for leaders of Kazakhstani national parks for the exchange of experience to Turkey.
Overall, we had a constructive discussion of topical problems of the industry and an exchange of views and suggestions.

NCE in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture will develop an action plan to support the tourist activities on the territory of national parks.

The next meeting is scheduled for 27^th of February this year, with the heads of the National Park of Karaganda region.

REFERENCE INFO:

The number of visitors at the national parks of Almaty region and Almaty:

№      Name of the national park         number of visitors (including foreigners), ppl.

                   2014 2015 2016

1.      “Altyn-Emel”                  4330  (372) 4098 (384) 5808

2.      “Ile-Alatauski”       114 665 (478)      117 005 (760)      117 571 (718)

3.      “Kolsay kolderi”        15899 (461)         18 125 (682)        22 092 (1388)

4.      “Charynski”                 4676  (2347)        8000  (2600)        9603 (2380)

5.      “Zhongar – Alatauski”  375 (24)     470 (6)       1005

Source: data of state national parks