13:09, 17 октября 2025, Bishkek - 24-kg.com news agency , Anastasia BENGARD
Tourism in Kyrgyzstan is experiencing a crisis. Vladimir Komissarov, head of Mountain Rescue Service Public Foundation, said, speaking at a briefing.
On the positive side, he noted some encouraging developments in the sector.
«These include the construction of major tourism infrastructure, such as Three Peaks project, the renovation of Ala-Archa National Park, and the building of new sanatoriums. Tourism, including winter tourism, needs to be developed. But at the same time, there are worrying circumstances indicating that the sector is in crisis and stagnation,» Vladimir Komissarov said.
He believes the management system of the tourism industry has long been at a dead end.
«One could blame the Tourism Department for poor performance, but it is powerless in its current form. While the department is making efforts, it lacks the authority and staffing to achieve results. For comparison, thousands of employees work in agriculture, whereas tourism—a priority sector—has only about 15 staff members. In addition, there is a lack of qualified personnel and experts. These factors prevent the department from functioning effectively. Looking at the development program and its implementation plan, almost nothing has been accomplished,» Vladimir Komissarov believes.
He added that management and development tools are ineffective.
«One management tool we hoped would help is the National Tourism Council. However, it essentially does not work; we see no results. There was a time, especially in the early 2000s, when the Council functioned effectively. Another tool—the Tourism Development Fund—has existed for several years, but has also produced no tangible results. Moreover, the organization has had four leadership changes in the last 1- 1.5 years, which raises concerns,» the expert noted.
Komissarov emphasized the critical issue of collective safety in Kyrgyz tourism, which became especially evident during the recent incident on Pobeda Peak in August.
«The entire mountaineering community discussed it. We observed the failure of the collective safety system, which has long been known. Analyses have identified weaknesses and areas for improvement, but nothing has been done; the situation may have even worsened. Three years ago, Kyrgyzstan ranked second-to-last in international mountain tourism safety ratings. I don’t think much has changed since then. Only Nepal had a worse system. At that time, Kyrgyzstan scored 30 points, while the acceptable level is 70 and the maximum is 100. The incident in August reflects that our rating remains almost unchanged,» Vladimir Komissarov said.
He also highlighted the shortage of personnel in the tourism sector.
As a reminder, in August, Russian climber Natalia Nagovitsina became stranded on Pobeda Peak after breaking her leg and was unable to descend on her own.