Why Kyrgyzstan?
During the week I had an interesting meeting with representatives of a market research company. They are conducting a “salaries survey” and wanted to know if we would participate.
Salaries are obviously a very important topic: important to both the employee – after all it is how they are able to live and sustain their families – and the employer – they certainly represent the biggest single item expenditure that we have. But the survey will go beyond pure levels of remuneration – what is in the pay packet – and will consider other forms of benefits: transport, meals, insurance, telephone usage and so on.
Now, there is a lot of confusion over official statistics – I have written about this on a number of occasions. The official subsistence level is about 4100 som – that’s less than a hundred dollars – and according to official statistics the average salary in the country is supposed to be 6618 som and in Bishkek just over 7000 som and the average pension is just 2621 som. Those are average salaries – which means that although some people receive more, some actually receive less! For example, I was recently talking to a young man who has just started a job and is receiving just 3000 som.
It’s not the first such survey that has taken place in Kyrgyzstan and, in fact, it’s not the first time that they have conducted the survey. Unfortunately, most of these surveys have turned out to be “one offs”, funded by some international project – perhaps as a fact finding exercise and, perhaps. as a pump priming exercise with the hope that the survey would have proved its worth, be valued by the local business business community and it would become sustainable as a permanent feature – but when the funding ended … that was basically it. There’s not much faith put in market research here, people don’t really understand how important information is and, so, are not willing to pay for it – and it can be quite expensive.
As a former teacher of Statistics, it is probably understandable that my attitude is a little different. We have participated in similar surveys in the past and were happy to agree on this occasion. It will be interesting to see how we compare to other firms in Kyrgyzstan, at least to the group of companies involved in the survey.
As is so often the case, although we met to discuss the Salaries Survey, it was the other “side conversations” that proved to be the most interesting. After we had introduced ourselves to each other and got the main business out of the way, they expressed the hope that this would prove to be just the beginning of a fruitful relationship between the two companies. I let drop in the conversation about my background in market research, (well, statistics), to show that I knew a bit about the subject and we began talking about other potential projects. We started to talk about some of the other surveys that we have taken part in over the past twelve years, and, in particular, about one very interesting project which took place a few years ago, funded by TACIS, (Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States – an agency of the European Union). It was unusual in that the survey was replicated and extended after the project came to an end and the TACIS funding had disappeared.
Part of the project was to carry out market research in Tourism in the Kyrgyz Republic. TACIS contracted a local firm which designed a survey and interviewed about a thousand tourists in Bishkek and around Lake Issyk Kul. In that first survey they concentrated on Kazkah , Russian and Uzbek tourists holidaying around the lake. The company director of the marketing firm, however, realized that a one-off survey gave little more than a snapshot and it would be better to have a series of surveys so that a longitudinal picture could be gained, showing trends and how things had changed and people adapted to meet the changing situation over the course of time. He also understood that “beach tourism” represented only a part, albeit the major part, of Kyrgyz Tourism and he wanted to explore other aspects of the industry – adventure tourism, eco tourism, tours along the Silk Road, as well as exploring the situation in other parts of the country less frequented by tourists.
Although the TACIS project had closed and there was no more funding, the company decided to repeat the exercise two years later, at their own expense. Of course, they hoped to recover this expense – and, hopefully, make a profit – by selling copies of the final report. I am not sure how many they eventually sold, but they did receive sell some and received some sponsorship to cover at least some of the costs.
Both of these reports were well received and so they decided to repeat the exercise once more – two years later.
Then, unfortunately, the General Director emigrated, the company closed and the sequence of surveys came to an end.
That was a great pity because there were many interesting facts revealed in those surveys and I often return to them and quote the results to this question or that when in the middle of a heated discussion with government officials or some other party.
Amongst the questions that were asked in the survey was “Why did you choose to come to Kyrgyzstan?” and “How did you find out about Kyrgyzstan?”. Now those are good questions – and the first is one that I am well familiar with as I am asked it all the time, even if it is phrased as “How on earth did you end up in Kyrgyzstan?”. The answers were revealing. Some people were returning to somewhere they had holidayed as a child, whilst others responded to recommendations from family and friends, articles in the press or items on TV, or something they found when surfing the internet, or from an advert that they had seen. As might be expected, others were attracted by Kyrgyzstan’s mountains, natural environment, and trekking opportunities, but this figure was quite low because the main focus of all three surveys was those holidaymakers visiting the shores of Lake Issyk Kul.
Price and service levels were also the subject of questions and comments – but the responses, to be frank, were not always complimentary.
I am sure that if more Westerners had been included in the summary, some of them would have said that they didn’t really choose to visit Kyrgyzstan. They were here because they were traveling the Silk Road, and in order to travel between the ancient oasis settlements of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to get to China, they had to travel through Kyrgyzstan. It was just part of the itinerary.
Some of the Mountaineers might have said that they wanted the opportunity to climb an unconquered peak, (of which we have plenty in Kyrgyzstan, or one of the legendary seven thousand meter peaks: Peak Lenin, Peak Pobeda (Victory Peak) or Khan Tengri. In recent years Karavshin, in the Batken region of Southern Kyrgyzstan, has attracted a lot of attention amongst trekkers and mountaineers alike for its remote, rugged, relatively unexplored, unspoilt and beautiful landscape.
Some people chosen to Kyrgyzstan because they are interested in the traditional nomadic way of life of the Kyrgyz. I am always intrigued to note that our series of cultural websites, (www.horses.kg, www.sounds.kg, www.tastes.kg and www.yurts.kg), when taken together get almost as many hits each week as all our other websites put together. We’ve had several tourists who have come in search of fabrics, musical instruments – and, of course, for horses. The legendary Celestial Horses may not exist any more, but the country offers a wide variety of possibilities for horse riding.
Other tourists that I have met over the years have been attracted by specific features of the wildlife, for example the birdlife, rare and exotic butterflies or the flowers. Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia is also the home of many different plant species a varied as Rhubarb and the Tulip. We’ve had two groups who wanted to visited Central Asia as the home of the apple.
Then again, there are those tourists who are “stamp collecting” – trying to visit every country and territory on the globe and collect the relevant stamps in the passport – but, although I have known several clients who have “come clean” on this point and there are several blogs written by people who openly admit that this is their aim, I am not sure how many tourists would actually own up to this in a survey.
Sometimes our choices are not so logical.
I remember, for example, the first time I went on a holiday abroad, and how I decided on the destination. It had nothing, really, to do with childhood memories, recommendations, price or anything like that. It was almost a whim of the moment. A friend of mine had suggested that we travel somewhere together and asked me where I would like to go. Expecting an answer like Majorca or the South of France, he was taken aback by my reply. I said that I had no idea. He picked up the Sunday paper which was full of holiday adverts and said “have a look through there and choose somewhere.” I did as he suggested and handed it back pointing to one of the adverts, quite a small advert with a small black and white line drawing – for Norway. As a schoolboy, I had always enjoyed Geography and glaciation was my favourite topic in physical geography. I thought I would like to see a fjord, and maybe a glacier or two. That’s how I got my first experience in international tourism.
I have written elsewhere, (see: Blue skies), about Lillian, who decided that she wanted to visited Kyrgyzstan because she saw some photographs and was taken by the blue skies that they portrayed.
So, there are a lot of different reasons why people come to Kyrgyzstan – a lot of different answers to the question: “Why Kyrgyzstan?” – and I haven’t covered them all by any means.
As an aside: I came across an interesting page on a the Matador travel site entitled “5 Reasons Why I Want to Travel to Lebanon Right Now“, which included: 1) the people, 2) ancient history, 3) the food and the wine, and 4) the diverse landscapes … nothing surprising there, and these could apply just as easily to other destinations … such as Kyrgyzstan. The other reason was, perhaps, a little different: “it’s peaceful at the moment.”
It will be good when we can confidently claim the same for Kyrgyzstan.
Some people, for example, come to Kyrgyzstan for business.
A previous British Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan once said that, although there weren’t that many British investments in Kyrgyzstan, especially when compared to Turkish, Chinese, Kazakh or Russian investments, there was a great deal of interest in the country, and many of those investments were the result of a “love” affair with the country. Many British people who end up in the country – and I presume that includes me – originally came here for one reason and found a reason to return or to stay. He said that reason was an emotional one – “love” – either they fell in love with the country, the people … or, maybe, a particular person.
As I often Kyrgyzstan does that to people. Many visitors are so enthralled with the place that they want to, (and they look for ways to), extend their stay, or to return.
Another thing that I often say is that “statistics raise more questions than they answer” – and these surveys are a prime example of this. If we ignore the typical questions about the methodology umployed – auch as: how the sample was selected?, how the data was processed? and how the results were presented? – then the vital question remains: “what does the survey actually tell us – and what does it miss out?”
The survey gave us a “snapshot” in time of respondents replies to questions that were posed to them. It might tell us, for example, about what attracted them to Kyrgyzstan. It doesn’t explain, however, why others didn’t choose to visit Kyrgyzstan – especially those who were exposed to the same stimuli, such as items in the media, other friends who had heard the same “travelers’ tales” from relatives, friends and colleagues.
It doesn’t tell us either, what sort of things we need to emphasize in order to attract more visitors. What interests our potential clients?, what would attract them and make them think positively about visiting Kyrgyzstan?, and, perhaps just as important, what would discourage them – and that we need to avoid in our publicity and advertising?
To collect that sort of information we would have to conduct some market research abroad – for example, run focus groups in countries where we hoping to attract potential clients. I well remember taking part in such exercises many years ago. A market research company would gather together about a dozen people in someone’s home and initiate a discussion on a topic, recording and noting down the responses. Then they would introduce the item they were really interested in: a new line of “energy drinks”, a new range of disposable camera, a new holiday destination and so on, followed by a question and answer session: “Would you be interested in this sort of product?”, “What do you think of the design?”, “Would this advert appeal to you and make you want to learn more?”, “What price would you be willing to pay for this product?” … and so on.
Given the difficulty in getting people to understand the value of market research, and the constraints on the state budget, it’s easy to understand why such exercises have not been conducted. That’s a pity.
As a result, when we are thinking about and planning our marketing, we have to rely on “armchair philosophy”, “armchair psychology” and “armchair marketing” – sitting back and thinking for ourselves asking questions like : what would work for me?, what would attract me?. That gives us a personal view or perspective, but implies that we are trying to attract like minded people, people like ourselves, and that misses a huge part of the potential market. Some of us take this further and try putting ourselves into the minds of our potential clients, (what would work for them?, what attracts them?, how does marketing in, say, Britain differ from marketing in, say, Japan? – what needs to be given greater emphasis?, and so on). Considering “what has worked in the past?”, learning from campaigns for other destinations, reading up what trends seem to be developing in international marketing, attending marketing courses and then applying logic and common sense.
That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t it be nice to have some concrete information about why people chose one destination over another … “Why Kyrgyzstan?” … the answers might surprise us.
Bishkek