Sustainable Destination Management
Strategies in the OIC Member Countries
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uncovered 100.000 km of these complex chain routes. Today, it is called the Silk Road. These
discoveries provide endless opportunities and fresh experiences for history seekers.376
One example of a historic finding is Golden Man, which was discovered in the early 90s in the
mountains outside of Almaty, near Issiq Lake. The Golden Man was buried in a stocked armory
in a warrior’s armor, made of pure gold. The Golden Man came to be a symbol of present
Kazakhstan. Two years ago, a similar Golden Man was discovered in the eastern part of
Kazakhstan.377
Another significant discovery was announced this year was the discovery of Alexandria on the
Oxus in Uzbekistan, which was founded by Alexander the Great.
The History of Tourism Development in the Region
Modern tourism development in Central Asia can be divided into two periods - Soviet and post-
Soviet, also called the Independence era. International tourism in the Soviet Union as a
specialized sphere of activity started in 1929 when an entity called Intourist (“International
tourist” in Russian) was set up. Tourism had been similarly centralized, as in the case of the
whole economy. The head office of Intourist in Moscow distributed the flow of foreign tourists
to all its republics.378
When the Perestroika political movement emerged in 1985, new opportunities for international
tourism in the USSR opened up, including several previously closed off areas becoming
accessible to tourists. Official figures provided by the Soviet government confirm a rise in
foreign arrivals from less than 500,000 in 1956 to more than six million in 1988.379 After the
collapse of the USSR in 1991, the conveniently-located tourist sites of the former Soviet Central
Asian Republics were able to become popular tourism destinations. These tourist sites varied
in type from the unique cultural, historical and archeological, to natural attractions. The policy
and model of tourism development in the independent countries of the region are primarily
created around improving tourism infrastructure .380
376 "ETC-UNWTO Seminar on Transnational Tourism Themes and Routes - the Silk Road," Travel 4 thoughts, last modified
October 13, 2019,
377 Interview with Deputy Chairman of the Board of Kazakh Tourism
378 Elena Yurievna Pashkova, "Organization of International Tourism in the USSR in Terms of Altai Krai (1960-1980-Ies),"
Service and Tourism: Current Challenges 10, no. 4 (2016): 129.
379 V. Arefyev and Z. Mieczkowski, "International Tourism in the Soviet Union in the Era of Glasnost and Perestroyka,"
Journal of Travel Research 29, no. 4 (1991).
380 Bobur Sobirov Baxtishodovich, Tukhliev Iskandar Suyunovich, and Anvar Kholiqulov, "The Start-up of Tourism in Central
Asia Case of Uzbekistan," World Scientific News 67, no. 2 (2017): 220.