Kyrgyzstan, tourism

This landlocked state, bordering China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan (Figure 1), is a post-Soviet centrally independent state that has a democratic government. The country has an area of 198,500 km2 (76,641 mi2) and a 2012 estimated population of 5.6 million (World Bank 2013). It is one of the poorest Central Asian countries and is classified as “low income” in terms of GDP (US$6.5 billion in 2012). Agriculture (19.8 % of GDP) and the services (52.5 % of GDP) are the main economic sectors. Gold production provided more than half of the country’s exports in 2011 and accounted for 12 % of GDP, but production has declined since 2012. Pre-1991, under Soviet rule, tourism in Kyrgyzstan was dominated by trade union-sponsored health tourism around the Issyk-Kul (Ysyk-Kol) region in the northeast of the country (Werner 2003). Lake Issyk-Kul remains a key area (an estimated 70 % of all tourists to Kyrgyzstan visited the area in 2007), but there have been attempts to diversify the country’s tourism focus.