3. Hotel Industry: Domestic and Foreign Experience.

Currently, there are around 600 tourist companies represented in Kazakhstan, half of them with offices in Almaty. They face a mountain of unsettled issues and problems. Expensive rates for advertising services, impossibility to get in touch with government bodies and consular services, insufficient information about the recent events, and a lack of professionals: all this reminds our entrepreneurs about the instability of the tourist business. Creating the Kazakhstan Association of Hotels and Restaurants (KAHR) in 1998 and the Kazakhstan Tourist Association in 1999 made it possible to focus joint efforts on resolving these problems.

Here are some examples of recent crucial achievements. Entry visas were cancelled for Kazakhstani citizens in July 2001 at an initiative of KAHR. The consular fee for entering the country was cut to $30 for foreign citizens. On 1st January 2002, an experimental streamlined visa procedure for citizens from 22 countries was launched. In October 2000, the Kazakh government issued the resolution On Measures for Improving the Tourist Image of Kazakhstan for 2000-2003. In July 2001, the bill On Tourist Businesses in Kazakhstan and Concepts for the Development of Tourism in Kazakhstan was passed. Members of the KAHR and KTA participated in the consideration of this bill, and made important proposals for its improvement. KAHR members also took an active part in developing Kazakhstan's new Tax Code. They have also contributed to cancelling the annual re-certification of hotels.

The association has acquired a good deal of experience of taking part in various world and regional exhibitions, such as the World Travel Market (2001, 2002), ITB fair of Berlin (2001), KITT Exhibition in Almaty, KITT in Moscow (2001), and other exhibitions.

We took the decision to join the Russian Association of Tourist Agencies (RATA) at the annual Hotel Conference of the CIS and Baltic countries, which was organized by the Best European Hotels and Akademservis. Since January this year, members of KTA and KAHR have been receiving electronic versions of the RATA-News daily newspaper, which conveys detailed information about the latest events in the tourist business.

Moreover, KAHR co-operates with the Almaty Association of Entrepreneurs, Russian Restaurant Guild, Kazakhstan Franchise Association, Central Kazakhstan Association, and other non-government associations.

The Kazakhstan Association of Hotels and Restaurants is grateful to all who support it and share its precious experience, and shows respect to those whose future is connected to the tourist industry.

4. Accommodation types for tourists recommended by UNWTO Classification.

The matter of the classification of tourism accommodations is particularly difficult for at least

two reasons:

-First of all, due to the large diversity of types of tourism accommodations, a diversity that is

constantly increasing;

-Also, due to the large diversity of classification systems that are themselves embedded in highly

different cultural and economic contexts.

I will therefore try to successively address four aspects of this matter:

-The objectives and the general framework of classification

-Systems for classification management

-Classification criteria

-Monitoring/enforcement

The first question that arises, of course, is: Why have a classification system? Or in other words,

what are its objectives? I see at least five:

To inform consumers. This point is very important because, by definition, a hotel is far from the

home of the tourist, and consumers cannot just go to the corner supermarket or the

neighbourhood retailer to see and possibly try out their future purchase. Classification thus

constitutes an indicator, a piece of information that should give confidence to the consumer

before, during and after his stay.

The second objective is to have a standardized listing allowing intermediaries, which are the tour

operators and travel agencies, to have a reference they can use when preparing their catalogues,

when negotiating wholesale deals with a hotel chain, or when putting together a customized

product.

The third objective is that of constituting an instrument for marketing and promotion. This would

be useful, first of all, for the hotels, which by featuring how many stars they have will be able to

promote their specific characteristics, and their additional services, based on the "certification

platform" provided by their stars. It is also useful at the governmental level. You will note in this

regard that practically all governments that are reforming their classification systems highlight

their desire to bring the quality of their national tourism up to a higher level. In this way, the

classification system itself can also become an element of promotion.

A fourth objective is to use the quality-measurement tool that is the classification system to

provide the hotel profession with a coherent framework that makes it possible to evaluate in a

consistent manner a sector that is characterized by the extreme diversity of accommodation units,

the vast majority of which, in both number and volume, are managed by individual entrepreneurs

or by enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.

Lastly, in certain countries, classification serves as a reference for the implementation of public

policies, such as the granting of subsidies or certain tax breaks.