Destination: Turkmenistan's vacation paradise

President Berdymukhamedov announced that USD one billion will be invested in a vacation resort on the Caspian, in the city of Turkmenbashi.  It will contain sixty hotels, a stadium, restaurants, sports facilities, and shopping centers.

This idea first surfaced in May of this year, and developed further after a meeting between Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.  At the time, I wondered who would come on shaky airlines as far as the Caspian, but I failed to take into account the many who might visit from more local venues: oilfield and diplomatic personnel from all over stationed near the Caspian; vacationers from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tehran, and Georgia.  So I am inclined to think that this might be a great idea. 

Investing in Tourism
According to the UN's International Labor Organization, the hotel, catering, and tourism industry is a service industry, with several different components.  Hotel business allows for employment in many service capacities, from hotel cleaning service personnel to expert chefs and savvy conciergerie.  Tourism businesses, such as tour operators, package vacation itineraries and can market to many different kinds of people or employment sectors.  Last of all, local communities can develop tourist markets for goods such as souvenirs and crafts on up to high art, incidentals such as band-aids or venues such as tea shops that appeal to the excursionist.  They can also develop services such as: Caspian fishing expeditions, cooking classes, or dance classes, spas, etc, etc.

Developing a sector of the economy from scratch does require significant governmental input.  However, the scope of building here seems to suggest an overabundance of large-scale facilities, which may not pay for themselves early on, with a dearth of planning for the smaller-scale enterprises that create new business: a little bit of overbuilding? A lot of overplanning?

Also, in this most recent incarnation, the customer base is supposed to be Turkmenistan's citizens, that they have “comfortable conditions for Turkmen people on vacation.”   This may signal that Turkmen citizens will have access to this closed resort community, (which of course they should have).  It could also be a reassurance that Turkmenistan's investment is for the Turkmen people.  But I think the latter could be accomplished by announcing the following:

1. a permitting regime for safety and health, unconstrained by draconian bribes, fees, and corruption;

2. ample provision for shopping venues and small eateries, including plumbing facilities and safe water; port facilities for Caspian tour guides and roads for land tours.  All this allows small businesses to take hold by providing decent infrastructure.

It doesn't have to be perfect to bring prosperity, but the more it adheres to this standard, the better for business.  I lived for ten years in a city with a large tourist sector of the economy (New Orleans).  The City spent a lot of time and money developing convention business (which fills the hotels and is paid for by room taxes) and promoting the city's ethos and convenience.  They also enabled that convenience, by funding large infrastructure for events such as music or sports (good idea for the stadium, by the way).  The rest of the attraction comes from small and medium enterprises: theme parks, museums, and those small and intimate restaurant “discoveries”.  Some of the latter, like the Acme Oyster Bar (how I miss it), was patronized by both city and vacation folk–those were the ones that repeat travellers wanted.  So, just as an armchair consultant, I would recommend a combination of state initiative and home-grown local business, myself.

Be careful what you wish for!
Yeah, and tourists get sunburned, and walk in front of cars, staring at the local marvels, so you need clinics; they’re always out of film and sometimes out of patience.  Abdulgamid has a humorous post over at neweurasia.net about tourism in his state.  The first is about Paul Theroux's recent article on Turkmenistan and it is hilarious–it will also give a local perspective which I cannot give–so in answer to the great laughs I had, where he commented on cranky (but famous) travellers, I include the following, U.S. grown-joke:

A waiter brings the customer the steak he ordered with his thumb over the meat.
“Are you crazy?” yelled the customer, “with your hand on my steak?”
“What” answers the waiter, “You want it to fall on the floor again?”

 Best of luck with the Turkmenbashi Entertainment Resort and Tourist Complex; and I hope to someday visit and sit down at the Green Tea Emporium for brief respite in the afternoon; after which, I would like to attend the Annual International Plov festival, where Central Asian cooks of note get together to compete on the best Plov in Central Asia, and people like me buy bowls of award-winning food and buy postcards, hats, and–more film and sunscreen.

Further reading:
RFE/RL interview with Paul Theroux
Another, shorter post by Abdulgamid on Joshua Kucera's trip through Turkmenistan
The International Labour Organization of the United Nations has a web site on the World Tourism Industry; here are some of their Proceedings & Publications
More waiter jokes

Photos: HawaiiAloha.com; Duane Hanson, Tourists II: at Kunsthaus Zurich; Questier.com; GreenTeaBenefit.com