Alay District of Kyrgyzstan wins a place among the 2022 Green Destinations TOP100 Stories 

On September 27, the World Tourism Day, the Green Destinations Platform unveiled the TOP 100 List of Good Practice Stories from all over the world, sharing and promoting stories that recount innovative and effective initiatives and projects from destinations working towards more sustainable development globally.

Kyrgyzstan was represented in this event by Destination Karakol, Destination Osh, the Kyrgyz Community-Based Tourism Association, the Swiss Bai Alai Project, the Swiss Sustainable Winter Tourism Development Project and the EU SWITCH-Asia GreenTour: Promoting Sustainable Tourism in Kyrgyzstan Project which initiated participation of the above organizations in the Green Destinations’ Annual Conference. 

Earlier this year, GreenTour and Bai Alai Projects have supported Alay in submitting a good practice story to the TOP 100 Green Destinations’ competition. 

The submitted good practice story is about reducing poverty among rural women through a decisive approach that was applied by the key stakeholders - CBT Alay, Bai Alai, Business Women of Alay Association, wool producers, the municipality, and the partners - to support and expose women artisans to working with tourists and ultimately, earning income for their families. The story highlights steps taken by the key stakeholders to promote handicrafts on the national, regional and international levels through a comprehensive and multi-faceted approach in gender mainstreaming, product development, marketing and promotion. Combination of these steps resulted in boosting the interest in products, additional income for women, a rise in their self-esteem and a successful social integration.  

Apart from the good practice story write-up, the competition requires a compliance with the 15 basic sustainability principles. Alay has successfully met the sustainability requirements and compliance with the standards with support of the Bai Alai and GreenTour projects. 

Alay District of Kyrgyzstan has won a place among the 2022 Green Destinations Top 100 Stories in recognition of its efforts towards responsible tourism and distinctive appeal. 

Alay is the first destination from Central Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Russian-speaking countries in general to get this recognition and award. 

The unique Alay products are promoted as an interesting tourist experience with a careful consideration of the sustainability principles. Alay is proud of conserving the national culture through popularization of crafts. As a result of these initiatives promoted systematically, tourist numbers have grown from 4 to 16.5 thousand in four years. The average spending increased from 15 to 50 USD/day. Total sales by CBT grew from $1400 in 2017 to $3020 in 2021 (maybe a percentage of the increase, to avoid numbers in dollars).

We are proud of this achievement and believe that Green Destinations award will bring additional benefits to the Alay people in the future, while Helvetas Kyrgyzstan will continue to support the district to achieve system-level improvements.

Background Information

Green Destinations

Green Destinations is a global nonprofit organization created in the Netherlands to support sustainable destinations, their businesses and their communities. Green Destinations’ core programs, the Awards and Certification Program for destinations, the Good Travel Program for businesses and the Top 100 Sustainability Stories are the main pillars of a country-wide stewardship approach that we have developed and piloted in Slovenia, Estonia, Australia, Brazil and Guyana.

Green Destinations 2022 is taking place from 26th to 29th September, hosted by the City of Athens. The event connects sustainability professionals, destinations, as well as tourism boards and businesses of all sizes through good practices that support peer-to-peer learning to discover initiatives, practical tools, and solutions for sustainable tourism destinations.

Alay

Alay is a district in the Osh province located in the south-west of Kyrgyzstan, bordering with China to the east and Tajikistan to the south. The area of Alay district is 6821 km2 and the population is 91'876. Traditionally, the main forms of livelihood are based on livestock farming, hay making and primarily rain-fed agriculture. Cultivation of potato, barley and wheat provides only small surplus yields for selling locally. Poverty has been widespread in Alay, the cumulative percentage of poor and very poor in 2017 was 57%. The economy was largely subsistence-oriented. Substantial support to the households has been fueled by remittances from family members working in urban centers of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia. To reduce the impact of these issues, alternative sources of income and poverty reduction measures were urgently needed.

Bai Alai

BAI ALAI – Small Business and Income Creation Programme is a ten-year initiative, in an area with a total population of about 100’000 and with a budget of approximately CHF 6, 7 million. Primary beneficiaries and right-holders are all 24’000 households in Alai and Chon Alai, in particular women and young men.
The Programme focus on two components to realize its goals:
1.    Livestock: (i) cattle and small livestock, (ii) cashmere, and (iii) poultry for egg production subsectors; and
2.    Local Economic Development facilitating and to initiatives of (young) women and men for establishing businesses in (i) hospitality and tourism, (ii) specific women and youth-led/-oriented Micro-, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and activities, and (iii) machinery services

Greentour: Sustainable Tourism Development in Kyrgyzstan.

The overall project objective is to boost the transformation of Kyrgyzstan towards a green
economy by enhancing the sustainability and competitiveness of tourism as a key sector. With this project, Helvetas, together with our partners Stichting European Centre for Ecological and Agricultural Tourism – Netherlands (ECEAT), the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators (KATO) and the Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association Hospitality Kyrgyzstan (KCBTA), responds to the objectives of the Kyrgyz government to advance a more sustainable tourism, involving communities, and diversifying tourism products in order to attract new target groups and clients.
The project is funded by the European Union's SWITCH-Asia program and by donations.