EXPLORING SKI TOURIST MOTIVATIONS FOR ACTIVE SPORT TRAVEL IN KAZAKHSTAN (ON EXAMPLE OF ALMATY CITY)

Аннотация

Ski tourists are one of large activity-based market segments in Kazakhstan, especially in Almaty city. Kazakhstan has objective potential to develop ski resorts and to become one of the world centers of this type of the tourism gaining popularity in many countries. This study emphasised the importance of tourist motivations in destination planning for the ski tourism market in Kazakhstan. A significant aspect of this probe will be a demonstration of the application of tourist motivation theories in tourism industry practice. To develop insight into the ski tourism market in Kazakhstan, the dominant focus of this study will be to develop a useable model of tourist motivations to choose the Shymbulak ski-resort as an adventure tour destination. The target population is members of the Shymbulak ski-resort. Limited by the time and money available for the study, the sample for the study was 212 members of the Shymbulak ski-resort. This sample was randomly selected at universities and popular tourist attractions. The questionnaire was available only in an English and  a Russian version. After the data collection, a statistical computer software package (SPSS) was employed for the data processing. Descriptive analysis, factor analysis were the methods utilised.