The convenience of living over the office is, in some ways, a definite advantage … but in others it is definitely not to be recommended.  In the winter, for example, it is extremely pleasant to be able to roll into the office without having had to brave the elements, but on the other hand I feel that I am always on call.  Sometimes, for example, if I have an meeting in the late afternoon or early evening, then I always face the dilemma on returning home about whether to go into the office on the way, or not.  There is always something to do and there is always the great temptation to fill half and hour usefully doing this or that.

Being constantly available, “on call”, is definitely a disadvantage because you can be sure that the telephone will ring or someone will drop in.  It is quite common for tourists, who “just happen to be passing”, to drop in at all hours clutching their copy of Lonely Planet or the Oddyssey Guide to Kyrgyzstan, open at the page which gives our address – late in the evening or on a Sunday.  Last Friday we got a phone call at about half-past four from a tourist who wanted to call in, and who asked “How do I get get to your office?”.  She had the address, (and, obviously the telephone number because she was calling us), but she wanted to know which “marshrutka“, miinibus, she needed to take from the sixth microdistrict, (suburb). That gave me a slight problem because I don’t often use the minibuses in Bishkek.  The city is not exactly small, but virtually everywhere in the center where we are based is within easy walking distance – I can get almost anywhere in about half an hour or forty minutes and, usually, there are many taxis if I am short of time.  Anyway, we gave her directions and she said she would be with us in about half-an-hour.

At the time I thought that was quite optimistic, but as I always have lots of routine tasks to do on Friday evening, I wasn’t too worried if she was going to be a little late – which she was, but she did find us, or rather me, because it was already well after office hours and everyone else had gone home.

So I answered her queries and once business was out of the way the inevitable conversation, or question and answer session,  began.  She asked where I was from, how long had I lived here and how on earth I ended up in Central Asia – all the usual questions.  I asked here where she was from, how long she had been travelling, where had she been and what her plans were.

She was Swiss, and had been travelling for over a year already and was on her way back home, over land.  Most recently she had been in Mongolia and China and had crossed the border at Irkeshtam and spent a day in Osh before travelling up to Bishkek in order to arrange visas.  She had wanted to travel through Kazakhstan to the Caspian and then over to Azerbaijan and eventually in Turkey, but her plans had been thrown into disarray and she was having to rearrange everything – but, before we get to that …

Hearing that she had spent some time in Osh, I took the opportunity to ask for her impressions.   It was quiet, she said, and peaceful.  There were some signs of the destruction the had occurred during the summer but there also signs of reconstruction.  The Bazaar was now working and she had taken the opportunity to buy a few things.  I pointed out that this was indeed good news because I had heard quite recently that it still hadn’t opened.  (In fact the photos on the Eurasia.org website  - http://www.eurasianet.org/node/62352 – still give a very discouraging impression).  Of course, she said, she didn’t know what it was like in “normal” times, and the no market hall, but there were stalls in the outside and people were buying food and other things.

She offered the usual praise for the scenery – the “spectacular” landscape, and also spoke very highly of the attitude of the Kyrgyz – everyone had been very hospitable – really friendly, courteous and helpful.  When there was a delay at the border, for example, the border guards even given her tea! … at no charge!!  This was a high point of her travels so far and compared favourably with what she had experienced so far in Asia.  That was really good to hear and I made a mental note to make sure I passed the comment on to the authorities whenever the opportunity arose … they like to hear good news … don’t we all?.

So turning to her future plans, why did she have to rearrange her itinerary.  She told me something that took me aback.  As she is travelling for so long, then she is having to get visas en-route – never a good idea, there are often many problems finding embassies, and the possibility that you might get turned down and stranded.  That’s why the general advice is always to try and get them before you set out if at all possible.  Being on the road for so long, however, meant that she couldn’t that.  Apparently, when she enquired about obtaining a visa for Kazakhstan at the Kazakh consulate, she was told “no problem” – but when she turned up to actually apply, the consul looked at her and most apologetically said: “I’m sorry, I can’t give you one.”  According to him, it seems that for some reason the Kazakhs have decided that no visas will be issued for the month.

That surprised me … it surprised her, and threw all her planning into confusion.  As it happened, however, some of her travelling companions were planning to travel from Kyrgyzstan to Tajikistan and then head off back towards Europe.  It wasn’t exactly what she had in mind … but seemed to be an attractive and viable alternative.  There are problems with the route, however, especially the perennial problem of visas.  Instead of two visas, she now needs to apply for four different ones – and nearly all the countries concerned have a reputation for being difficult to get visas – even for the Swiss.

Even though the Swiss don’t need a letter of invitation for some of the countries, the consuls concerned looked for one, which involved not only additional expense but also required more time.   … Then there was the matter of making the applications … the consulates all open at different times and to make matters worse, in the coming weeks, there are holidays when the embassies will be closed.  It looks as if she may be “trapped in Bishkek” for a couple of weeks for the bureaucracy to work itself out.  Even then, there is no guarantee that she will get all of the visas … and she only needs one application to be rejected and she has to start planning all over again.  This sounded to me to be an ideal example of how we need a “Silk Road Visa”.

There have been discussions for about a decade now for some sort of visa reform to make it easier to travel the Silk Road.  The World Tourism Organization, (now called the United Nations World Tourism Organization), have long proposed that there could be a single visa covering all the countries along the Silk Road, but it’s never come to anything.  Some of the countries along the way have been sympathetic to the idea, but others resolutely opposed.

The were other problems that I could foresee.  Travelling to Tajikistan overland, for example, means using the Kyzyl Art pass – down to Osh and Sary Tash again, then head further South into the mountains, and taking the remote and rugged Pamir Highway … in November and December!  Technically, as I understand it, it’s possible … but I am not sure that I would want to do it.  It will be a cold and difficult journey at that time of the year.

More to the point, however, I asked about she planned to cross from Tajikistan into Uzbekistan.  Technically the border is closed at the moment.  The discussion then ranged far and wide about the difficulties in crossing borders.  “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you will be given tea everywhere.”  In Europe, it’s so easy – especially since the advent of the European Community and the Schengen zone.

In answer to the question “is this sort of thing common here?”, I responded that: “It’s one of the delights of working in Central Asia.  You can never be certain about what is going to happen.  The situation keeps changing, from year to year, month to month and even day to day.  You can’t take anything for granted.”

She took it well, in her stride.  She “rolled with it”.  After a year on the road, she said, she had become used to setbacks of one sort or another and having to rethink her plans.

I wished her luck as she ventured out into the Bishkek night – I hope she doesn’t need it.

All in all, it was a pleasant exchange and well worth the unplanned extension to the working day.

Visitors to Kyrgyzstan, (entry to the competition was open to all comers except the staff of the companies listed above and their relatives), were invited to send their “Impression of Kyrgyzstan” – either in words (a phrase/sentence, or a longer description), a photograph, a video clip or other format.

The idea was that entries should be something which encapsulates the impression and/or memories of their visit to Kyrgyzstan: a place, a feature; an incident; …

We received various entries including phrases (or slogans), descriptions, pictures, slide show and some drawings. Each has given us material on which to reflect and will help us in planning for the future development of our tours and services. Besides, after summing up the final results of the event we probably will use information from the competition entries in presentations, training and advertisement.

We would like to thank all the participants for their interest in the competition and for their time and efforts they have spent to prepare their entries. All those who sent us their works were awarded notes of thanks and encouraging prizes.

Also, we are grateful to all our partners who helped us prepare and run the competition. In particular our thanks to Dinara Kemelova at the Kyrgyz Embassy in Japan and Thomas Haefliger (from Switzerland) for their assistance in translating materials into Japanese and German.  Special thanks also go to Sergey Pyshnenko for offering a prize to be given to one of the participants.

In particular we would like to thank and congratulate the following entrants on their work:

Isabelle de Valleuil, (France) Slideshow – it’s an flv file and should play in your default player Isabelle de Valleuil has long been interested in the countries that make up Asia; an interest which intensified with her study at the School at the Louvre.  However, it was also necessary to travel to the region and at last she had the chance to begin a journey along the route of the Great Silk Road that took her through Kyrgyzstan. She felt that it was important to record the places she had visited and the impressions they created in photographs and so, on her return to France, she created a slideshow in order to share the impressions with others.  She says that her time in Kyrgyzstan was a short, but enjoyable, experience due to the warm hospitable reception of the local people, the professionalism of the local guides and the extreme beauty of the landscapes.  Isabelle hopes to return and make a further expedition among the wonderful natural landscapes. In her five minute slideshow Isabelle de Valleuil displays photographs that she took during her visit to Kyrgyzstan in May 2007, accompanied by a soundtrack of traditional Kyrgyz melodies. The slideshow illustrates both the natural and cultural diversity of the country.
To download a copy of the slideshow in flv format (it’s 20Mb) Click here – KIRGHIZSTAN
Suzy Gaussent, (France) “A Kyrgyz Diary”, illustrated travel notes; Suzy Gaussent was a teacher of German, before becoming an inspector of the Academy in Paris. She is now retired, a grandmother with two grandchildren. She has been drawing since childhood, and painting for the last twelve years. During this time she has taken part in many exhibitions, and also has organized two of her own, in Paris and in the south of France.
Jean-Louis Gouraud, (France) Phrase Jean-Louis Gourand is a publisher, and has published more than hundred books about horses, and riding.   He is the author of the book “Central Asia, the centre of the world (horse)”, published by Belin in 2005.  In 1990 he completed a 75-day expedition from Paris to Moscow (3333 kms) with two French trotters.
“There is really only one problem concerning Kyrgyzstan – a lexical one. There are not enough words to express the admiration one feels “.

No problem – I am always happy to meet with people … although I am not very good at “small talk”, I am by nature a very garrulous character, and it is always good to meet with people and get their opinion on how there tour has gone.  I have written elsewhere about the importance of Feedback.  I must admit, however, that this particular call came as a bit of a surprise, after all, not every client asks to meet with the General Director.

Rare though this may be, it does happen.

Just occasionally, they want to meet me just to be sociable.

Sometimes, they want to meet me because I have been involved in the correspondence about their tour and they want to “put a face to the name”;

On other occasions it is because someone has told them: “if you are ever in Bishkek, you should look up Ian Claytor”;

Once or twice it has been because one of the clients is a businessman and wants to talk about an business idea that they have had.  On this occasion there was an element of that.  One of the clients came up with a suggestion that was very interesting – but I’ll look into that and write more about it another time.  It wasn’t the main reason that they had asked to see me.

There have been occasions when they have wanted to meet me to tell what a wonderful time they have had in Kyrgyzstan.

Sometimes, however, and let’s be frank, (after all, I say that I believe in the “warts and all” approach and like to be “up front” with clients), it is because there has been a problem and they want to complain.  Another thing that I often say is that I believe, like President Truman, that “The buck stops here”.  It’s part of my job to deal with complaints when they do arise.

As it happens there been a problem with this particular trip, but they didn’t want to complain, simply that I heard their side of the story.  Which I did.

It was, actually, a small problem – and even they made light of it – something to do with the admin at one of the places where they were to have stayed.  It was the sort of problem that on many trips, the clients may not have even been aware of the fact that there was a problem.  On this occasion, however, it was obvious … and they just thought that I ought to hear their side of the story.

With that out of the way, however, most of the conversation was taken up with totally different matters – such as the idea that I wrote about above.

They were full of praise.  Praise for the country: “magnificent landscapes”; for the staff: “professional … excellent …”; for the tour: “outstanding … wonderful …” … and so on.  One of them then made a comment which brought a smile to my lips … “the trouble is that aren’t enough superlatives to express our delight… “.

OK, so why did that bring a smile to my lips?

Because, back in 1997, when we opened the company, this was one of our slogans:

“there aren’t enough superlatives …“

which later evolved into:

“… in Kyrgyzstan, it is possible to run out of superlatives when trying to describe what you can see and do”

and, also, when we ran the “Impressions of Kyrgyzstan” competition in 2007, one of the winners was the slogan:

“There is really only one problem concerning Kyrgyzstan – a lexical one. There are not enough words to express the admiration one feels “.

It’s not the first time this year that I have been taken aback when something like from the past has been thrust back at me like this.  Earlier in the year, I described  how a couple of tourists from  New Zealand thrust another of our slogans back at me: “There’s something special about Kyrgyzstan … “.

Now I know that everyone is different and other people might have a different feeling – but isn’t it nice when you meet someone who agrees with you?

There are some people who complain “at the drop of a hat”, who think nothing of making a scene at even the smallest mistake or mishap, whilst others never complain and accept everything that happens with a shrug and “shy away” from complaining, reluctant to create a scene.  Most people, fortunately, fall somewhere in between.

The client, the consumer, has a right to complain if something falls below an acceptable standard … If they pay money for an item or a service, then they are entitled to expect certain standards to be upheld in return.  Apart from being their legal right as consumers, it is only fair and reasonable.  What’s more, even though no-one really likes to have a complaint made, a businessman should welcome complaints.  They be willing, (if not eager), to listen to the complaint and to apologize, investigate the problem, (to see how and why it arose, if only in order to learn from the event and to try and prevent it happening again), and to try and make amends.

Yesterday, I happened to be in the hotel and the staff showed me the comments book.  They were somewhat upset, surprised and even shocked by one of the latest comments … even the one person who had been singled out by the guest for particular praise.  The problem was that they had stayed with us for several days, been very polite and cheerful, never giving any hint that there was a problem, and then when it came time to check-out, asked for the comment book and wrote down a list of complaints … things that had “gone wrong” or been less than satisfactory as far as they were concerned.

“Why didn’t they say something?” was the question I heard over and over again.

I had some sympathy with this, especially as the guest had pointedly said that his comments would be posted “on the internet”.  Under other circumstances, I might have taken this as a “threat” in order to try and force concessions out of a management reluctant to concede that something was unsatisfactory and to do something about it, but in this case we weren’t given the opportunity to do either and so I presume they were simply informing us of their intention to do so.

If they want to post a review on the internet, that’s their privilege.  They will be able to say what has happened, why they were disappointed and what they thought was unsatisfactory.

In the days before the internet they might have told their friends and relatives, colleagues and acquaintances … many, (if not most … if not all), may not be particularly interested in that they were unlikely to visit Bishkek.  In these days of “social media”, however, guests can now write a review which could be seen by tens, hundreds or thousands of internet surfers.   Those surfers presumably read the reviews in order to decide where they want to stay if they are going to be visiting Bishkek.

Such reviews are actually a good resource for consumers, especially those who have not been to and do not know either Bishkek or Kyrgyzstan in general.  I know, because I use them myself.  However, they need to be treated like all reviews, however, with care and caution.  The surfer needs to remember that they represent one person’s account and opinion, events and experiences are presented as seen through their eyes.  If there are several reviews that all reflect the same sort of experience, (either positive or negative), then this is probably indicative of something.  Where there is just one, however, it could be that it is simply represents a “one-off” unfortunate occurrence.  It’s also possible that the reviewer has forgotten to mention something, or wasn’t aware of something that was materially important.

Then again, they didn’t say where they would post their review, which means we may won’t even have the opportunity to exercise a “right of reply” … unless, that is, we happen to come across the review by chance.  That doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to me.

Notice, I haven’t commented, so far, on their actual complaints … It may well be that in some cases I agree with them: that something did go wrong … that we should have done better … something for which we would like to apologize … and which we would like to try to put right … and for which we would like to try to make amends … and thank them for bringing the matter to our attention … so that we can investigate … and try to prevent a repetition of whatever it was.  For example, if they really were kept waiting an hour for a meal to be served, then I do agree that this is unacceptable.  I find it unacceptable when I go to restaurants and have to wait an inordinately long time for my meal to be served.  It shouldn’t happen.  I would like to try and find out why it did … however, we weren’t given the opportunity to apologize and to try and make amends.  That doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to me.

In other cases I would have welcomed some more information.  As it happens, I know which room they were staying in and so I can investigate the problem with the room that they describe and take remedial action to correct it.    However, once again, we weren’t given the opportunity to apologize and to try and put things right at the time.  That doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to me.

It is also possible that in cases I don’t agree with them: everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and to come to their own judgment – even if they are wrong.  I would have welcomed the opportunity to explain why I think something happened … or why it was “as it was”, but I wasn’t given that opportunity.  That doesn’t seem fair and reasonable to me.

Of course, I would had preferred to see a positive review rather than a negative one … but they are entitled to give an account of their experiences and say what happened and to give an opinion … and, unless they tell lies or give a very biased account, then there is nothing we can do except “grin and bear it” and try to ensure that we do better, that we improve our facilities and service and that nothing like this happens again in the future.  It would have been so much better, however, if we had known and been able to do something at the time.

The correct time to complain should be, in theory at least, when a service or product is below the expected standard.

Trying to take a positive slant on the experience and use it in order to improve our service, the lesson seems to be, I suppose, that one way to avoid this sort of thing from happening in the future is to be proactive and to ask, (and keep asking), clients: “Is everything OK?”, “Is everything satisfactory?”.

After all, as the old slogan has it: “If you are satisfied with us, then please tells others … if there are problems, please tell us!”

I was once conducting an “appraisal interview” with one of our managers, and in response to the question, “How do YOU think things have gone in the last year?”, he replied, “Not bad, I think we have met all the difficult situations we are likely to meet and have systems in place to cope them and are ready for anything.”  It was mean of me, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to ask, “Really, when did one of our guests die?  I must have missed that.”  The look on his face showed that he realized his mistake – he hadn’t even thought of that as a possibility and how he would cope with it.

Although we have faced many difficult moments, we have at least been spared this particular experience … so far.

In this case, the person who died was one of those rare clients that keep in touch after a tour.  .  Many people, after completing a tour with us, seem to disappear of the face of the earth, and we never hear from them again.  This is not surprising, nor unreasonable … after all, although we hope to see them again, in the following years they probably want to visit other places.  Occasionally, however, a client does continue to keep in touch after their tour is over.

On some occasions, clients strike up a really good relationship with guides and drivers so that if they do return to Kyrgyzstan, they make a special request to have the same personnel for their subsequent trips.   Some offer an open invitation to look them up if we ever visit their country and some have even been known to invite their guides to visit them for a holiday.

It is really nice to hear from former clients how they are getting on and where they have visited as well as getting feedback about the tours they have taken with us.

Feedback is very important to us … even when it is “negative”.

Although it is always nice to get “good reviews” and, like most people, we love to be told that we have done a “wonderful job” … that everything was “excellent”, however, when something does go wrong or has been less than satisfactory in some way, then the feedback we receive can point us to areas where we have to pay attention so that we can try to ensure that the situation isn’t repeated, improve our performance and provide a better experience for clients in the future.

Sometimes, however, these “negative” points can refer to things that are outside our control … such as the state of the roads, or the toilets, in Kyrgyzstan, but still they are useful and help us in our discussions with service providers, (hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, etc.) and government officials.

(Actually, the roads in Kyrgyzstan are not that bad on the whole – most of the main roads are asphalt but because of the extreme temperatures and heavy traffic the surfaces can be uneven and make for a bumpy ride.  The toilets, on the other hand, can be pretty dire.  Although we try to warn clients about this, it can still come as a bit of a shock.)

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get feedback from clients.

We have developed a number of feedback forms, or comments forms, which we give to clients and ask them to complete. We hope that it is not an onerous task and to help make it easier the forms contain a simple tick-box section and also some free space in which to write comments.

As in the case of most surveys, however, the response rate is not as good as we might hope for.  When I was teaching statistics, pupils were always surprised to learn about the low response rates to questionnaires and postal surveys … maybe just 10% or 20% of the forms distributed are completed and returned.   Even when the comments forms are returned, they often appear to have been “rushed”  …  short, one word, comments are common – for example, “toilets”.  In  way, this isn’t surprising.  Although we have tried to make the forms simple and easy to complete, filling in a comments form is not compulsory and so it is often put off until the last moment.  When, on the other hand, we do get detailed comments and, better still, constructive suggestions about what would have made their holiday experience even better we do find them very useful.

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I recently read of a survey run by a large hotel chain based on the United States. They sent out an email to the all their guests for whom they had an email address with just two questions:

1. On a 0 – 10 scale, 10 being the highest, how would you rate your overall experience at xxx (name of the hotel chain)?, and
2. On a 0 – 10 scale, 10 being the highest, how likely are you to recommend xxx (name of the hotel chain) to a friend?

Unfortunately, the author didn’t say how many emails they sent out, but he did say that in six months they received over 50,000 replies – which is quite impressive for such a survey.  This compared with virtually no direct customer feedback for the whole of the previous year.  What’s more, “50% of those guests have provided us with detailed comments that help us to continuously improve our operations and realize our brand promise of exceeding our guests’ expectations.”

That’s a good question – especially as there have been several attempts to limit the management of tour companies to: Kyrgyz citizens, with a Higher Education diploma in the subject and three years experience in the industry.  The only one of those three that I would satisfy is the last … we opened the company in 1997, so have over 10 years of experience.

So how come, given my background of Theology, Psychology, Maths and Information Technology, did I end up running a tour company and two hotels?  The answer, like so much in life, is that it was almost an accident – not according to some grand master plan.

Originally we were looking at various possibilities for investment here in Kyrgyzstan – and although tourism was on the list, it was not top of our list.

Amongst the various options we considered were: investing in a mine, a shoe factory, buying a Chicken Farm and opening a tour firm.  My favoured option was the Chicken farm – everyone has to eat and I could see the customers.  The economics looked good and of the sixteen chicken farms operating in the Republic during the Soviet period, not one was operating properly after the break up of the USSR … so we would effectively have been a monopoly.  The deal fell through, however, because the president made a decision to stop the privatization of agricultural enterprises.  In a way, I am grateful to him.  Sometime afterwards the price of eggs and chicken meat fell drastically and I am not sure how the firms that have managed to go into this area manage to make a profit.

Tourism was the next favoured choice, although I am always anxious about one crucial point … where are the customers going to come from?.  We thought that we had identified a gap in the Kyrgyz tourism market as it was then and felt that we could fill it.

However, as I say, I was concerned about the question of finding clients for the business.  Without clients – there’s no business.  What good is a shop with no customers? – the goods will remain on the shelf, unsold, and the shop will go out of business.  What good is a factory manufacturing products, (for example: shoes), which remain unsold in the warehouse and end up having to be remaindered and sold at a loss?  What good is a school with no pupils?  What good is a hotel built in the middle of nowhere with no guests ever arriving?  What good is a tour company with a fantastic itineraries, a full compliment of guides and drivers, contracts with hotels and performers, and so on and so forth … if there are no tourists?

We need clients, (customers, consumers, tourists, guests …), because without them there is no business.  We have to attract their attention, interest them in what we have to offer, elicit a demand from them and then deliver the action to fulfill their requests – the AIDA principle.

Those customers can be “new” clients, enticed by our blandishments to sample our wares.  In the case of tourism, most of our clients are “new” as most people seek out new and exciting, interesting and unusual places to explore.  A tour is usually a “one-off” purchase.  For example: “This year Kyrgyzstan, next year, Kenya …”.  One of the biggest challenges facing us is to convert these from one-time clients into repeat, or even regular, customers.  Most shops, for example, unlike a tour company, will have a catchement area of regular customers, with just the occasional new customer “dropping in” from time to time.  Although some people like to return over and over again to the same destination where they find comfort in familiarity, most people want to visit somewhere new.

At the risk of labouring the point: The client is King, (or Queen), … without him, (or her), then there is no business, there is no work.  The is the whole point about the “client orientated” approach – the idea of “”service”.  When I first came here that was generally lacking … For example: I remember going into a shop and the shop-assistant was sitting at the far end of the room doing her manicure … I asked “Mazhno Vas?”, which means “Can I have your attention?”, or “Excuse me” … she looked up shocked as if to ask what I was doing interrupting her … got up slowly and sauntered over to the counter … I asked for what I come for and she got it throwing it down on the counter … I gave her my money and she threw the change next to the goods on the counter.  There was no sense of “service” … no sense of welcome or “Thank you for your business, thank you for shopping here, thank you for choosing us, thank you for helping to give me a job and pay my salary” … Needless to say, there was no “Have a Nice Day”.  Not even a “prikhodite eshor raz” – “Please come again”.  It was as if the shop was there to give her something to do – not to serve customers.  A bit like a school being there for the teachers, not for the pupils.

This may well be a hangover from the Soviet days when it was considered one of the major jobs of the government was to find employment for all the population.  There is a saying that the central planners in Moscow had a list of villages that needed factories to provide work for the local population and a list of factories to produce goods for the economy, and they planned the placing of new factories accordingly – not thinking about things like the distances from the raw materials or the markets.  If that was true then, in a way, the shop may well have been there for the shop assistant – not for the customer.

I am pleased to say that, fortunately, things have improved over the years and generally there is a much more client orientated approach and an atmosphere of service.

Tourism is a “service industry” … service is our product … it’s what we sell … it’s what we provide to our clients.

However, service is only part of the question at issue … one side of a coin … after all, for a client orientated approach to mean anything, there needs to be clients in the first place … and in the case of tourism, as I said before,  that means finding new clients each year … and so Marketing is such an important aspect of our activity.   We need to constantly attract new clients.

When we began the company back in 1997, most people in the West had no idea where it was.  I often tell the story of how my mother telephoned me to ask: “Ian, where did you say you were going?”.  The answer of “Bishkek, in Kyrgyzstan” was met by an anguished cry: “But, why can’t I find it on the map?”  She was in Malvern and I was in London, (about 125 miles away – 200 kilometers), so there was no way I could pop round, there and then, with an atlas to show her … so I had to simply promise that I would show her when I next visited.  On my next visit, I dutifully took with me an atlas and satisfied her curiosity, putting her mind at ease … and I found out why she couldn’t find either Bishkek nor Kyrgyzstan on the map … she was looking in an old, (very old), Pears Cyclopedia which still referred to the old names of Frunze and Khighiz S.S.R.

Another example that I quote is about Serkun, a mild mannered Turkish Cypriot that I used to teach in London.  When the news broke that I was leaving the school, (albeit, at that time, for just a year), people were interested to know where I was going and what I was going to do.  Now, Serkun was a a quiet, easy going pupil.  He never really exerted himself at anything, and never showed any form of emotion.  Never, that is, until he heard that I was going to Kyrgyzstan.  He sttod up at the back of the class and astounded everyone – myself included – by shouting at me … a real tirade … “Why are you going there? … why are you going to help them? … they think that they are a separate country … but they are not … it’s a part of Turkey … they are Turkish!”  The penny dropped … he thought I had said Kurdistan … they do sound similar … and he had never heard of Kyrgyzstan, anyway.

This lack of knowledge was not unusual.  Hey!, to be honest, I didn’t really know anything about Kyrgyzstan before I came her either.  Yes, I did know something about the Silk Road and the Mongols … but not about the Battle of Talas.  Yes, I had heard of places like Samarkand, (that’s in Uzbekistan), and the Huzqa Valley, (that’s in Pakistan) … but I hadn’t heard of Bishkek, Issyk Kul, Tash Rabat or Saimaluu Tash, (they are in Kyrgyzstan).  Yes, I knew something about Genghiz Khan, Tamerlane and Marco Polo… but not about Chinghiz Aimatov or Manas.

The first thing about attracting clients and persuading them to take their holidays in Kyrgyzstan is making sure that they know we exist.  Then we can tell them what a fascinating place it is and how hospitable an experience awaits them here.

So, Marketing is an important, if not vital, aspect of our work.  Without it, we have no clients … we have no business … I have no job, (and neither do the sixty odd people who work for the company!).

At first we tried all the usual forms of marketing activity: printing leaflets and brochures; mail shots; visits to potential clients; attending exhibitions; placing advertisements in the press and in catalogues; arranging tours for representatives of potential clients and journalists and we created a website (www.celestial.com.kg).

Back in the early days we found that we were spending more than half our time “advertising” Kyrgyzstan as a destination rather than selling our products – our services, itineraries and hotels.  Spending time on the initial A and I of AIDA – (Attention, Interest, Demand and Action), instead of concentrating on the final D and A – concluding the deal and making the sale.

For example, the website started quite small – with about only 10 brief pages of information.  (I know, it’s hard to imaging how I could be “brief”!)  As we got asked more and more questions, we added the information into the site and it soon became a mini-encyclopedia about the country and visiting the country.  When I am surfing, I am quite often amused to find some familiar text on somebody else’s and thinking: “I recognize that …”.  Sometimes, to be fair, we have been asked if it is OK to quote our text and sometimes there is even a link back to the original source.

The same sort of thing happened in exhibitions and trade fairs … I would spend far more time answering questions like “Where is Kyrgyzstan?” and “What is there to see and do?” instead of selling tours.

So, you can imagine how pleased I was when the Swiss government decided that would help to fund the establishment of a “Tourism Information Board” for Kyrgyzstan – the Destination Marketing Association.

Why the Swiss taxpayer should contribute nearly two million US dollars into advertising a small and distant Central Asian country that had no few formal or traditional ties with it … I am not sure, but I am grateful that they did.  It could be because the country is like Switzerland in many ways: small, landlocked, mainly mountainous.  Kyrgyzstan is sometimes referred to as “The Switzerland of Central Asia”.

The DMA did undertake a number of important activities and helped to put Kyrgyzstan on the map as a tourist destination … and I always tried to support it as much as I could, serving on the Board of the Association for the first two years.

Unfortunately, however, the project proved to be controversial, for a number of reasons.  It’s not necessary to go into them in detail … but one of the main ones was, of course, money.  When I say that the Swiss contributed “nearly two million US Dollars”, the budget was expressed in Swiss Francs and amounted to about USD1.8 million. One of the criticisms often levied by some of the locals against the project is that most of this money didn’t actually go towards marketing activities but towards administration – establishing the Association, training, bringing in foreign consultants and so forth.  I think that’s a little unfair because all of this really was necessary … but the fact remains that only a small proportion of the budget actually went towards marketing – with all the Swiss finance for the activities being met by “matched funding” from the Kyrgyz side.

Some people felt that there was no need to have a separate organization to do this – that there were already viable alternatives for implementing the project, such as the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators.  (Although I could see the logic and advantages for such an arrangement, I didn’t agree with is – and you can see my reasoning another postcard.)

You can probably also understand how demoralized and dispirited I felt when the project came to an end – and the Association was disbanded.   It was a very sad experience … Now, however, the State Agency for Tourism, (basically Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Tourism), undertakes the role … and is making a really good effort to promote the country.  Even if though we have differences of opinion over some of their activities, (such as the identification of Kyrgyzstan as the home of Santa Clause),  I have to give credit where credit is due and say that they are approaching the issue in a serious and businesslike manner.

When it came to setting up the hotels, the search for clients wasn’t such a pressing problem.  Having said that, we still need clients, (that is, guests) … so we still have to go and find them, “court” them and encourage them to choose us instead of our competition.  After all, we have to at least “break even” and not make a loss.  It’s not a “social service” financed by the government of the day to provide employment for the local population … it’s a business … and so it needs guests/clients in order to cover it’s costs, pay its taxes and make a profit.

So if it wasn’t such a “pressing issue” … why not?, where were the guests coming from?

Well, as well as having our own tourists, whom we could accommodate in our hotels, we felt that was sufficient scope in the market for growth.  At that time there weren’t, (and to certain extent still aren’t), enough hotel rooms in either Bishkek and Naryn … nor in many other places around the country.  Only the resort zone around Lake Issyk Kul seemed to be sufficiently supplied with accommodation to meet the demand.  That demand came from other tour companies that had to accommodate their tourists, from businessmen and consultants.  Many of them would indeed be repeat guests, returning over and over again to stay with us.  And so it has proved.

What’s more, that scope for growth was also an opportunity in that what accommodation was available was “old stock” – in need of renovation and designed for a different market.  As well as concentrating on levels of service provided by personnel, we were able to think about, and plan for the provision of facilities and amenities.  This is how we hoped to attract clients – facilities, amenities, service … all at an affordable price

Indeed, we found that a lot of locals saw what we were doing and have adopted many of the innovations which we implemented in our hotels.  Nowadays there is much more competition in the hotel market in both Bishkek and Naryn … and people are often surprised when I say that I am not afraid of it, … that in fact I welcome it … because it gives the client a choice and it helps to keep us “on our toes”.

In other words, it was easier to strike the balance between the legendary 4P’s of Marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion – you have to have a product to sell, at the right price, which the clients are prepared to pay, and you have to tell them about it.  For the hotels, I didn’t have to spend a disproportionate time outlining and explaining extraneous matters such as: where Kyrgyz was located, that the Silk Road passed through its mountainous territory, the variety of wildlife and kaleidoscope of cultures – especially the traditional nomadic culture of the Kyrgyz.  Once again, we can concentrate on ourselves and our services … our product.

For example, I hate being told a “bare faced” lie.  It happens … and sometimes it isn’t deliberate … it just happens, a person says something and then becomes committed to it, and they may even become convinced that it is really true (… which raises an interesting philosophical question … is it really “a lie”?).

The most frequent example of this is when something goes wrong and people want to shift the blame somewhere else.  My attitude is that I would rather know the truth … don’t hide something, don’t try to evade responsibility … yes, there may well be consequences for making a mistake – but they will be far more serious if they try to hide something from me, and I find out later on.

Another of my pet hates is the phrase “The customer is always right”.   I have heard this SO MANY times … even from people who should know better … and it just simply isn’t true.

For example, on one occasion I was in a seminar and a lecturer used the phrase, so when it was time for questions I tackled her about it.  “What about when the client lies to you?, or steals from the hotel?, or makes an improper suggestion to the pretty (or handsome) member of staff?”  Her reply incensed me even more … “I usually tell my students: ‘The client is always right – even when they are wrong’”.

Why did it worry me so?  Apart from the fact that the client sometimes does do things which are wrong, (even criminal), or simply make a mistake, it is demeaning to all those involved (client, staff, bystanders … everyone) to adopt the approach that they are always right.  They are not God!

The client, however, does have rights.  They are paying for goods and services … and they have they right, for example, to receive goods and services accordingly.  They are consumers and they are protected by law.  They have the right to receive the good and services for which they have paid.  They should be in accordance with the advertised goods and services – and any agreement or contract.  They should be concomitant to the price they have paid.  They should be of quality and suitable for the purpose for which they were intended.

More than that, the client has the right to be treated with respect and consideration.  They right to be understood.  For example, if they arrive in the middle of the night after an eight hour flight, and had a long wait in the airport for the immigration procedures to be completed, for their luggage to arrive – and maybe some of it has gone missing – then they might well be tired and irritable … but that doesn’t give them the right to be rude and offensive to the member of staff manning the reception desk.

They also have the right to complain when something goes wrong, or doesn’t work.  In fact, although I would prefer nothing to go wrong, I actually welcome feedback … I would rather a client told us about such things so that we can try to redress the problem, make amends, and take remedial action to prevent a reoccurrence.

They even have the right to be mistaken.  We all make mistakes.  But they don’t have the right to “carte blanche” – a “blank cheque” – just because they are a client.

A recently published handbook for owners of homestays (a sort of Bed and Breakfast) in Kyrgyzstan asked the question: “Are you prepared to abide by the principle that the customer is always right?”, which struck me as an improvement …