Tourism Consultant and Former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine of the Republic of Seychelles, Alain St.Ange recently completed his role in a series of government-led tourism training sessions in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
Invited by ‘Visit Almaty,’ he collaborated with local expert and official guide Mrs Zhanar Gabit and Mr. Tom Buncle, the Managing Director of ‘Yellow Railroad’ International Destination Consultancy to speak at training sessions, an event totally dedicated to the Tourism Industry in Kazakhstan organised for tourism related or industry support managers working in different fields of government i.e. tourist police, rescue, destination management, museums, customs and border guards.
Alain St.Ange, Head of Saint Ange Tourism Consultancy is also the Vice President of the ‘World Tourism Network’ (WTN). He was a former Minister of Tourism, Civil Aviation, Ports and Marine of the Seychelles and was a candidate for the post of Secretary General of the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organisation) now rebranded as UN Tourism and was one of three candidates vying to be President of the Seychelles in the island’s 2020 Presidential Elections. Alain St.Ange manages the international affairs of WTN with organisations such as WTTC, Destination International and tourism ministers in the 133 countries WTM members reside and operate from.
These training sessions in Kazakhstan concentrated mainly on managers to empower them to follow up with training of their department’s personnel on better ways to work with tourists in a manner to show the country is attractive for tourism.
The Organisation rallied some 300 government delegates divided into 10 groups with 30 people for all day sessions spread out over two days.
“The knowledge of international tourism is average. The employees understand what tourism is in general. And Kazakhstan is a new destination on the world tourism map so many people do not understand how to deal with foreigners. The format is the Facilitation training that will end with an extensive Q&A session” said a representative of the organisers before adding: – “Mainly, the goal of this government organised training program is: To firm up the understanding of International standards implementation importance in hospitality industry to create “friendly” environment for international visitors and to train people the high standards of behavioural norms towards visitors. Which can be addressed to Global awareness of Kazakhstan as friendly tourist destination”.
Alain St.Ange took on his sessions with “What is Tourism” and how each and every Manager in attending the sessions can help tourism in Kazakhstan to be consolidated. He also encouraged the Kazakhstan authorities to work with its Central Asia countries and to develop a new ‘Central Asia Tourism’ as a new destination.
“I was amazed by what Kazakhstan has to offer the discerning travellers looking for a new destination. The have the most incredible mountains just 30 minutes for Almaty City centre with ski-slopes offering four feet of snow now and this at very high altitudes, they have the rivers offering incredible white-water rafting and they have lakes and a desert. They have canyons, great nature as a remarkable asset and they people and culture remain unique as they are not Asia and they are not Europe, but well established as a tourism centre in Central Asia and are Eurasian” St.Ange said as he encouraged the authorities to embark on cooperation of collaboration with the likes of World Tourism Network (WTN) that can help open up tourism to become a solid pillar of the economy after oil and gas that they are so blessed with.
