Discussion

In the history of Kazakhstan’s development, tourism has been thought of as a key issue that has a direct impact on the country’s economy. As the industry of Kazakhstani tourism started its development not so long ago, it was important to examine the travelling preferences of Almaty residents in order to identify demand for certain vacation destinations. Determining both most preferred holiday destinations and aspects that affect tourists’ choice are two major objectives in this research. In other words, the main focus was on investigating destination choice behavior, hypothesizing that younger generation is more likely to spend their vacation time abroad than within Kazakhstan and that accommodation comfort is the main aspect that people consider when choosing a vacation destination.

The results of this study showed that the most preferred holiday destinations are America and both Eastern and Western Europe. In addition to this, a data from the interview indicated Turkey as the most highly-demanded vacation place for Almaty residents. Another important finding revealed that sightseeing opportunities were the main factor that influences tourists’ choice. Moreover, accommodation comfort seems to be important aspect for tourists as it took second place in a row of proposed factors and this result was also supported by the qualitative data. The fact that local tourist agencies do not offer an appropriate level of neither sightseeing opportunities nor accommodation comfort that results in Almaty residents traveling abroad.

This section firstly presents the analysis of findings, further compared with expectations, followed by the analysis between the present and previous studies. It concludes with the limitations, implications and recommendations for future investigations.

At the beginning of the research it was hypothesized that elderly people are more likely than youth to stay locally. The difference observed between three age groups in this study was not significant. People who preferred Kazakhstan as a vacation destination is a little bit more than other two age groups. However, the finding from the interview revealed that most of tourists who prefer to spend their vacation time abroad were aged around 40-50 years. Even though the results from the questionnaire did not show any significant difference between older and younger generation, more detailed data gathered from the interview proved the hypothesis. It might be explained by a number of both physical and financial factors. First, when people get older, state of their health becomes weak and thus does not allow them to endure long trips. On average, for example, an air trip abroad is up to 6 hours plus traveling time to airport and check-in time may increase it to 8-9 hours. Abrupt change in climate contributes to the negative influence on health, for example, on body’s pressure drop (Haines, Kovats, Campbell-Lendrum, & Corvalan, 2006). Consequently, such stress on the body can adversely affect the overall health of an elderly person. Second, those who are retired are not able to afford themselves to travel abroad because of low pension. Trip for one person is usually close to $1000, but the average pension in Kazakhstan is approximately 250$. Despite saving money for the vacation abroad, people have to pay state taxes and provide themselves with basic needs. Subsequently, traveling abroad might be difficult for people who can only rely on pension and who do not have a financial support from family members.

The research also hypothesized that Almaty residents consider accommodation comfort as the major aspect affecting their holiday destination choice. Contrary to expectations, the quantitative data revealed that sightseeing opportunities have more impact on people’s selection. A possible explanation for this might be that travelers usually try to explore the area and discover something new. Expression of interest to the study of beautiful sceneries and historically significant places is an inseparable part of tourists’ curiosity. Even the questionnaire results showed that Europe and America are the most preferred traveling destinations since there are a lot of historical and cultural places that people gladly attend. For example, Coliseum in Italy, Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, statue of Liberty in the United States and so on are all the places that people prefer to visit. This finding is supported by the findings of previous works. One of the studies conducted by Joseph and Dogan (2001) revealed that cultural experience is one of the main factors that affect tourists’ choice. By cultural experience they mean interest in history and in the locations where the history took place. This result is also in agreement with Zulkifli’s et al. (2009) findings which showed that Arab tourists include sightseeing of the current destination, namely Kuala-Lumpur, in their daily activities. One can say that tourism industry of the Eastern Asian countries is highly developed, thus reaches the level of European countries in terms of sightseeing opportunities. Moreover, spending all the vacation time within the hotel grounds might be really boring whereas a country is full of beautiful sceneries and nature which may open the mind and bring lots of pleasure. For instance, Niagara Falls in the U.S., Alps in Switzerland, Pamukkale in Turkey, and others are the places, beauty of whom was given by the nature itself. In accordance with the present results, the study conducted by LaMondia et al. (2009) demonstrated the same tendency as the majority of people considered nature and scenery as the main criteria for choosing a destination. Their study revealed that the six most preferred countries for vacationing were located in Europe that in turn supported the findings of this research.

It was also found that comfortable accommodation is no less important factor that people take into their consideration when choosing a holiday destination. This result is consistent with the study conducted by Lohmann and Beer (2013), in which they identified amenities (facilities) as an attracting aspect. They claimed that a certain region might not become a potential vacation destination for travelers without appropriate accommodation. It seems possible that this result may be due to the fact that people always want to have a rest in good living conditions. Generally, when a person decides to book a holiday trip, he or she looks for hotels which may make him or her satisfied with a comfort they offer. Subsequently, one may note that wherever tourists book a vacation trip, they always look for comfortable accommodation as it is a prerequisite for tourism. The finding is also supported by Zulkifli’s (2009) results, as the Arab tourists paid due attention to the level of comfort in hotels where they lived. As a manager of travel agency reported, the majority of their clients book trips to Turkey because of the high level of accommodation comfort. This may be explained by an upscale and at the same time affordable accommodation that hotels provide for tourists. One more reason of high demand on visiting Turkey is that there are some hotels which offer “all-inclusive” in terms of food, beverages, cleanup and other entertainment activities. One may mention that no matter what holiday destination people choose, the main two things they want to acquire are satisfaction and pleasure. All these physical and emotional satisfaction might be reached by correctly chosen hotel that provides a desirable comfort. On the basis of these research findings, it appears that people value both comfort and sightseeing when being on vacation.

This study also aims to show the tendency of Almaty residents’ travelling preferences between three age groups: youth, adults, and elder people. First of all, the results show that America is less preferred by those who are aged from 26 to 50 years. This finding might be explained by the fact that most of the adults have their own families, thus some financial and physical difficulties may arise. With regard to the financial difficulties, it can be said that it is too expensive to provide all family members with visa and further accommodation and some other tourist activities in America. Moreover, due to the fact that a distance from Kazakhstan to America might not be covered without layovers, it should be noted that another problem for families with little children may be a long flight. All the ways to America from Kazakhstan pass through the countries such as Holland or Russia, thus take approximately 12 hours. Sitting at one place for a long time may contribute to children’s irritation and fatigue, thus expressed in disturbance of parents’ tranquility. Therefore, it may be difficult for families with little children to visit America. So, adults with little children are more likely to visit Eastern Asian countries because of the sun holidays that seem appropriate for their vacation. In addition, quite a large number of the respondents were found to be staying within Kazakhstan. This finding might be explained by the fact that these people are not able to afford travel abroad. In general, except the above mentioned findings, there are not any significant differences between other destinations and the age group. In regard to the connection between age groups and factors that affect travelers’ destination selection, one striking finding reveals that sightseeing is chosen mostly by those who are aged from 16 to 25 years. This surprising result may be due to the younger generation’s involvement in the study of culture.

The results of this study can be very useful for travel agencies, the government, and even for common people. First, the information gathered from the qualitative and quantitative data might usefully supplement the work of tourist agencies. Travel agencies should better promote the rest in American and European countries. Second, taking into account the findings of the present study, the government may recognize why the local tourism is not well-developed. The findings also show the government the lack of some significant aspects in Kazakhstani tourism. The government should provide the Committee of tourism industry with a certain amount of money that may contribute to the increase of accommodation comfort in local hotels. Moreover, it is suggested to improve marketing campaigns in order to attract people, especially from foreign countries, to visit historical and cultural places. Third, the data obtained from this investigation may help people with various ages to decide where they might have a rest. For instance, recognition of the place that is mostly preferred by youth may be very helpful also for young generation in order to be aware of this destination’s demand and popularity.

Actually, this research report did not face some difficulties which could limit an obtainment of some data that is really relevant. There are only few limitations the current study addressed during the investigation process. One of them is the small number of the participants. As this study aimed to find out the travelling preferences among Almaty residents, much more people should have participated in the survey. Almaty is a city with a population equals more than two million people, but in this research only 108 residents were surveyed. In other words, all the research findings were based on only 0.01 percent of whole population of Almaty city. Thus, it is suggested to increase the number of participants through all manner of social networking sites in order to bring a clearer picture of the issue. Also, another suggestion for future research is to gather information from other travel agencies, since the data might not be analyzed and based on the findings of one tourist agency.