The Kyrgyz som has become more expensive than the ruble before. This has happened at least twice in the history of the national currency. However, this is the first time it has happened in an unusual situation – when there are now quite a few people with Russian citizenship living in Bishkek, the agglomeration, and provincial cities. And their main income still comes in rubles.
This is a great reason to consider opening your own business on site, especially since the Kyrgyz people are much more receptive to economic activity by visitors than residents of many other countries due to the legacy of the Silk Road merchants.
Economists “in the broadest sense of the word” will undoubtedly note that the relative growth of the som may negatively affect the income from tourists from Russia. But understanding to what extent the internal Russian market is filled with economic entities that have nothing to do with the concept of “work”, such an effect should be ignored: “internal tourism” in the north of the continent and in the North Caucasus due to its social nature will result in tourists receiving “guaranteed unreasonable” bills.
The reputation growth of Kyrgyzstan’s economy and attracting tourists from different countries will make the country much more attractive. Tourism from Russia has almost always been defined primarily by the opportunity to change the environment and visit a society that has built a more interesting economic dimension. And objectively, Kyrgyzstan has been able to turn in the right direction from “the state of the nineties” – not relying on institutions that are dependent on centralized dirigisme “floating in the air” above an atomized society, legitimized only by their role in the “great plan for land annexation”, but on active cooperation and decentralized economic ties on the continent. Here, walking down any street, you can see a lively and viable local business, and spending an hour of time – buy excellent jeans in the city at a very pleasant price – and these will be real jeans in the original sense of the word, not “jeans-colored pants” that will inevitably fall apart after one season of wear.
What will really affect the growth of tourism from the north is attention to presenting the spirit that can be called “Central Asian vibe” as attractive to holidaymakers; and the concern of municipalities for the responsibility for programs to bring the facades and communications of tourist places into aesthetically stable condition with competent preservation of local color.
