Modern development of hotel business in Kazakhstan

Analysis

In foreign countries, hotel business is a business that brings a good, stable income. According to foreign experts, investments in hotel business represent an almost risk-free investment, since the main asset is real estate, which in the long term rises in price by 5% per year.

Also, the income of hotels depends on the state of the tourism industry in general. Currently, forecasts of experts of the World Tourism Organization until 2020 are very positive: the world tourism industry will show an annual increase of 4% or more. This positive growth is provided by the availability increasing of air travel (their prices and varieties), the improvement of the tourist infrastructure, the growth of the welfare of tourists, the globalization of the world economy, etc. The world population is becoming more mobile, that leads to an increase in the number of tourist trips (business tourism, leisure tourism, health tourism, etc.), and, consequently, to the positive state of hotel industry.

Today foreigners are interested in Kazakhstan, so they come to our country more often, usually the have the goal to develop and open a business or invest some money. That is why the hotel industry in Kazakhstan has received much development. Foreign and local developers have been actively investing to the construction of hotel industry.

The hotel business in Kazakhstan today is one of the most competitive sectors among other economy sectors. So, in recent years, the number of placements in the country has been increasing (Table 1).

According to the "Rules of the classification of tourist accommodation" approved by the order of the Minister of Tourism and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 11, 2008 No. 01-08 / 200, the accommodation facilities include hotels, motels, campsites, tourist bases, guest houses, boarding houses and other buildings for tourists.

According to Table 1, the number of placements in 2017 increased by 28% compared to 2015. In terms of categories of placements, there is an increase in the number of 5 * hotels by 10% in 2017 compared to 2015, 4 * hotels - by 16%, hotels without a category - by 26%, other placements - by 40%. At the same time there is a slight decrease in the number of 3 * hotels by 4% in 2017 as compared to 2015, 2 * hotels - 5%, 1 * hotels - 18%.

For the better perception of this picture, we will show the distribution of placements by category in the Republic of Kazakhstan in Picture 1.

Picture 1. Number of placements by categories in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2015-2017, units

Also, there is an interesting tendency in number of visitors served at the indicated locations of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the analyzed period of time, which is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Number of visitors served in the places of accommodation of the Republic of Kazakhstan *, people [3]

According to Table 2, the number of visitors served in 2017 increased by almost 38.8% compared to 2015, and this is a very good tendency in the development of the hotel business in general.

As there is an increase in demand for hotel services, which confirms the growth in the number of served visitors in the accommodation, the number of accommodation sites in Kazakhstan has also increased over the past three years.

At the same time, it is impossible not to consider the value of the average cost of bed-days in the places of accommodation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the cost of services depends on the demand for services provided, from non-price factors, from the macroeconomic situation in the country and in the world.

Table 3. Average cost of bed-days in terms of categories of placements, tenge

According to Table 3, it is clear that the gap in the level of the average cost of bed-days as a whole in the republic decreased from 20.1 times in 2015 to 19.6 times in 2017. However, in the context of the categories of placements, there was an increase in the average cost of bed-days in 5 * hotels by 12.1% in 2017 compared to 2015, in 4 * hotels - by 12.4%, 3 * hotels - by 6, 1%, 2 * hotels - by 0.4%, 1 * hotels - 3.5%, hotels without a category - by 14.3%, other placements - by 14.9%.

On the one hand, this tendency is due to the growth in demand for hotel services, and on the other hand, to rising costs and the macroeconomic situation in the country.

For clarity, we show the dynamics of the change in the average cost of bed-days in the context of the categories of accommodation in Picture 2.

Picture 2. Average cost of bed-days, KZT

In addition, we analyze the volume of services provided by the placement sites, since they form financial income both to the local and state budgets of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Table 4).

Table 4. The volume of services provided by accommodation sites, by type of economic activity *, KZT’000 [3]

According to Table 4, the volume of services provided by the accommodation sites in 2017 increased by 49.3% compared to 2015, including the provision of services by hotels increased by 46%.

There is an increase in the volume of services provided by other economic activities, except services for living in a camping, recreational vehicle fleet and trailer park, there was a decrease by 28.7%.

This situation can be explained by the growing demand for better accommodation and related services.

Detected regularities in the volume of services provided by the accommodation sites, in the context of the types of economic activity are shown in Picture 3.

However, this does not mean that there are no problems in this sphere. For example, there is such indicator as filling of hotels, which in 2015 was 22.8%, and in 2017 was 25.0% in the whole country. At the same time, in the context of the regions of Kazakhstan, this indicator ranges from 13.3% to 33.4%. This fact characterizes the irregular filling of hotels, both during the calendar year, and in the context of the regions. Although there are some costs of the hotel all the year, managers should use diversified management in the practice of hotel management and develop other related services.

In large cities of Kazakhstan, such as Astana and Almaty, 4-star and 5-star hotels are currently built according to the world standards, but in general, the situation is not as good as it supposed to be. According to the information of the Kazakhstan Tourist Union, the hotel industry in the regions is characterized by a high degree of moral and physical deterioration: rooms are not comfortable enough, there is technological backwardness, po-orly trained staff, and a narrow range of services. Also, there is a staff turnover in hotel business, bad planning of the enterprise, lack of qualitative long-term programs and development strategies, a weak corporate culture of companies.

Picture 3. The volume of services provided by the accommodation sites, by the type of economic activity, KZT'000

Market participants are sure that in order to improve the quality of hotel services in Kazakhstan, it is necessary to introduce a unified certification to determine the quality of service and the conditions of hotels. We should not stick to the position of "low price - low conditions", the issue of price should be decided on the basis of competitiveness. Also the legal framework of the activities of hotel business in the Republic of Kazakhstan is outdated. For example, the updated standard of "Tourist and excursion services. Classification of hotels" has not yet been adopted, although it was planned to conclude the discussion by October 2016.

Only some high-class hotels can offer world standard services, however, their services are very expensive and only a small part of people in Kazakhstan use them.

At present, the domestic market of hotel services needs comfortable and inexpensive hotels. Terry Powell, former director of business development for the group of companies “Chagala”, said: "Today it is extremely necessary to be oriented in 3-and 4-star hotels. There is not enough investment in this sector. In the regions, elite and expensive hotels are not in high demand, but medium-sized hotels with clean rooms, good services and affordable restaurants are in demand" [6, p.7].

According to experts, the efficiency of the hotel business is directly connected with highly qualified specialists, conducting reasonable pricing policy, introducing modern technologies and other factors outlined in the Concept of the development of the tourism industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the “100-Step Plan of the Nation” and the “Nurly Zhol” program.

The hotel business is one of the important elements of the service sector, which functions to provide citizens of Kazakhstan and foreign guests with housing, food, and various additional services. The investment attractiveness of Kazakhstan, the improvement of the living standards of the population, the arrival of large international hotel chains on the domestic market have caused the need to improve the intensive development of hotel services their quality, according to the world standards.

Conclusion

The results of the research confirm that the sector of hotel services as a kind of entrepreneurial activity was the closest to the market changes in supply and demand. At the same time, the efficiency of the hotel business, in our opinion, is primarily related to the degree of management effectiveness. Therefore, in this area it is necessary to improve the quality of provided services, and this requires additional costs for purchasing innovative technologies in the hotel industry, and also it is recommended to develop diversified management.

So, taking into account the analysis of the state of the hotel market in 2015-2017, it is noted that the hotel industry in the Republic of Kazakhstan is at an active stage of formation, and has good prospects for further development.

REFERENCES

1. Zakon Respubliki Kazakhstan ot 13 iyunya 2001 goda ¹ 211-II «O turistskoy deyatel'nosti v Respublike Kazakhstan» (s izmeneniyami i dopolneniyami po sostoyaniyu na 15.06.2017 g.).

2. Pravila klassifikatsii mest razmeshc-heniya turistov, utverzhdennyye prikazom Ministra turizma i sporta Respubliki Kazakhstan ot 11 noyabrya 2008 goda ¹ 01-08/200.

3. Sayt Komiteta po statistike Ministerstva natsional'noy ekonomiki Respubliki Kazakhstan. http:// stat.gov.kz/ faces/ publications Page/ publications Oper/ home Numbers Tourism?_ afrLoop= 651289 234649519#%40%3F_afrLoop%3 D651 289234649519 %26_ adf.ctrl-state %3 Dtp 40cnx57_4

4. Mezhdunarodnyye gostinichnyye pra-vila (odobreny Sovetom Mezhdunarod-noy gostinichnoy assotsiatsii ot 02 noyabrya 1981 g. Katmandu, Nepal).

5. Godovoy otchet OYUL «Kazakhstan-skaya Assotsiatsiya gostinits i restora-nov v forme ob "yedineniyay uridicheskikh lits». Shaykenova R. 2015 g.

6. Nazarenko YU.A., Barkhatova T.P. Gostinichnyy biznes v Kazakhstane. // Vestnik PGU. - 2006. - ¹ 4. - S. 51.