CRC Press Tourism in Central Asia: Cultural Potential and Challenges (Advances in Hospitality and Tourism)

This book will be a major resource for all academic researchers and practitioners interested in issues dealing with the development of tourism, its potential and challenges, and policy and regulatory issues in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. These countries are gaining more attention as emerging destinations. There is limited research that focuses on these countries with respect to their potential and characteristics as tourism destinations. This book aims to be an invaluable source for both practitioners and academicians who are in international marketing and tourism. The central Asia region (also termed the Silk Road region) as an emerging destination is ripe for future tourism development. The region is rich with historical, cultural, and natural beauty that could provide significant utility to many potential visitors. This book brings together key writings on this topic in a single resource. Review "[This book] has the merit of focusing on Central Asia, a geographical area that has received little attention in academic literature. Also, the book presents a balanced mix of theoretical and empirical chapters; this, coupled with the fact that the empirical contributions adopt both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches, helps the book to raise the spectrum of its potential reader. . . Overall, the book is well-structured and achieves one of its main goals, which is deepening the understanding that both researchers and practitioners can have about Central Asia as an emerging and promising tourism destination in the international tourism arena. Further, as the editors state, the book represents a springboard to open further research venues to offer a deep and critical analysis of the potential and challenges of tourism in this region and beyond."―Annals of Tourism Research, by Mohammad Sharifi-Tehrani, Department of Business Management, University of Isfahan, Iran, and Giacomo Del Chiappa, Department of Economics and Business and CRENoS, University of Sassari, Italy "This book aims to be an invaluable source for both tourism practitioners and academicians who are interested in this region. . . . The strength of the book lies in its comprehensive approach. This is one of the first attempts to offer insightful discussions of many aspects of potentials and challenges in Central Asian states by bringing together ‘key writings on this topic in a single resource’ (p. 6). . . . Overall, this book is a significant addition to tourism research in Central Asian countries, which will stimulate more interest and provoke more questions on issues discussed in the book. Tourism scholars and practitioners will find the book a valuable resource, especially if they do not have direct access to tourism studies in Central Asian countries’ native languages." ― Tourism Analysis, Review by Xiangping Li, Institute for Tourism Studies Macao, China About the Author Kemal Kantarci, PhD, is an associate professor of tourism management at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. His teaching and research interests are destination management and marketing, tourism geography, and tourism marketing. He also works as a consultant to public and private sector organizations. He has published several papers in international and national journals and proceedings. His studies are mainly focused on tourism opportunities and challenges in Central Asian and Balkan countries. Dr. Kantarci has visited Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, as visiting professor and worked as a full-time lecturer at Ahmet Yesevi University, Kazakhstan. He currently teaches in the areas of tourism management, tourism geography, destination development, and tourism policy and planning. Muzaffer Uysal, PhD, is a professor of tourism in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and