ASTANA – Every year, millions of tourists visit less-trodden parts of Central Asia, diving into an experience full of new sights, sounds and smells. What many people do not realize is that a tour guide is the major person who sets the right tone for tourism in a country.
Indy Guide founders Alexandra and Atahan Tosun (L and M) during the training seminar for local guides. Photo credit: astanatimes.com
Kazakh Tourism national company in cooperation with Indy Guide booking platform organized master classes for Kazakh guides to elevate their understanding of Western tourists and help provide a better experience for Kazakhstan’s guests. For local tour guides and anyone who plans to visit Kazakhstan, this is welcome news.
Local guides were trained in one-day sessions in Astana on July 30 to be continued in Oskemen on Aug. 5, and Almaty on Aug. 7.
Indy Guide is a platform that connects local guides from Central Asia, Caucasus and Mongolia with travelers from all over the world. Founded in 2015 by the Swiss couple, ethnic Kazakh Atahan Tosun and his wife Alexandra Tosun, the platform now works with more than 2,000 local hosts.
These days, most Indy Guide tourists are from Europe and the USA. They are people keen to know more about Central Asia and its neighborhood.
Alexandra Tosun, a co-founder of Indy Guide, said the seminar aims to encourage Kazakh guides to enhance their knowledge of Western tourists and promote local destinations and culture.
“The people here, our guides and tour operators – they are experts in Kazakhstan, in Kazakh history and culture. But what we want to try to do with this seminar is to bring them a bit closer to the Western traveler. So to explain a bit, what does the Western traveler want? How do they act? What is important for them?,” said Alexandra Tosun.
Her husband Atahan Tosun echoes that sentiment.
“There are two main goals. One is to talk about the mindset of Western travelers: understanding them, what their preferences are, what they like and what they dislike. And the second big part is – as an online platform, we observe a lot of how they [local guides] present, how they communicate and how they sell. We have a lot of recommendations from our observations. We want to share the knowledge that we have gained over the past nine years since we launched the platform, so that they can hopefully learn and grow,” he said.
What do Western travelers expect?
While it might be challenging to travel to some places in Kazakhstan, the country has so much to offer in terms of hospitality and authentic experience, not to mention the pristine nature.
“As we talked about Katon-Karagai [State National Natural Park], when you say the roads are not so well maintained – this is something that the European traveler would probably like. This is an adventure for them. They want to see how the real country is. They want to have real experiences, meet local people, and engage in local traditions. This is special for us,” said Alexandra Tosun.
There is a real interest in the Central Asian region among foreign travelers for its nomadic lifestyle. The European travelers are interested in genuine and behind-the-scenes stories that only locals can tell.
“Europeans, we are used to traveling. We’ve seen a lot of countries. And this region here, especially with the nomadic traditions, is very new for us. This is different and special. So that’s what people want to see and they also want to be part of day-to-day life and really meet local people and engage in local experiences. This is very much on the uprise,” said Alexandra Tosun.
While focusing on the big landmarks and luxurious places, many locals forget the importance of small experiences for tourists.
“Another topic that we’re trying to explain is that sometimes something boring to a Kazakh is very interesting to someone from Switzerland,” said Atahan Tosun.
“For example, we came from Aktau. We saw so many camels everywhere on the street, in the city. That was a big thing. Our son was counting the camels on the street. And for them [locals] it’s daily life. They see it all the time. We told them ‘that’s very interesting.’ You can also do something very exciting, from something normal,” he added.
Those experiences might be as simple as visiting a local village, having dinner with a local family, assembling yurts (traditional portable nomadic houses), herding sheep or visiting a farmer.
What could tour guides improve in their service?
The training will help elevate the knowledge of local guides on what is important for a Western traveler.
“There are several minor issues, for example, around safety concerns. Especially Europeans, and especially travelers with families, with children, they have a very high safety concern for children, and that applies to cars: the condition of a car and the behavior of the driver, driving carefully, having a car with a working seat belt, not using your mobile phone when you’re driving,” said Atahan Tosun.
“Another small issue that we see in negative reviews is punctuality. When you say ‘We will start at eight o’clock in the morning,’ the Swiss traveler will be there at five to eight. And if you come five past eight, they have already lost some patience. Punctuality is really important to many of them, not everyone, but to many of them,” he added.
Tour guides are in many cases the first point of contact with visitors, but with the rise of online platforms, interactions can begin even before the first meeting. According to Atahan Tosun, this makes online communication equally important.
“One issue that we are also addressing in online communication is response time. We hear that a lot. When they call or email a travel agent, they expect an immediate return or response. Sometimes it takes days, but this is a very important criteria on how travelers pick the provider. When you respond quickly, you’ve already won 50% of the sale. Many, many [guides] still don’t [respond quickly],” said Atahan Tosun.
Infrastructure along the road might be far from perfect in many places, but according to Alexandra Tosun, one way to address this is by ensuring tourists are well-informed about what to expect from the tour.
“I think there are still some issues [in infrastructure] and that can be fixed, but I think it’s a lot about expectation management with the guest. You can prepare a guest. If you manage the expectation and say ‘hey, look, we have some issues there. I am trying to find the best toilet available for you, for example,’ I think it is enough because we have to work with what we have at the moment,” said Alexandra Tosun.
Atahan Tosun also agreed that poor infrastructure is not the major factor holding back the tourists.
“I think what’s more important is to invest in education. Education in terms of raising awareness for a service-oriented mindset in the tourism and hospitality sector. That would be, I think, a big help for tourism,” he said.
“Another issue we are facing, especially for example in the Mangistau Region, is the language barrier. Still, so many people in tourism don’t speak English. So education there would be a big help. We don’t have enough English-speaking tour guides in the Mangistau Region and in east Kazakhstan. Demand is higher than supply,” added Atahan Tosun.
Kazakh Tourism has also developed a platform for digitalization of guides. The system is designed to improve the process of maintaining the state register of guides and facilitate access to up-to-date data. Tourists will be able to verify and get information about official guides by scanning their individual QR code.
