Innovations in mountain guide training for the tourism business in Almaty

Abstract

The relevance of the proposed project is due to three main factors.The first is the real level of unemployment, which, according to experts, is quite high in Kazakhstan. The second is the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the third is the consequences of the events of January 2022 in Almaty. Unemployment in Almaty, according to official data for the first quarter of 2021, was 5.2% (according to Finprom.kz). But, in fact, this figure is much higher and concerns primarily young people. That is why our project is designed mainly for young people of student age studying in universities with a degree in Tourism. The purpose of the article is to show what kind of innovations should be used to train mountain guides, taking into account the socio-economic problems of Almaty. The development of domestic and inbound tourism has always been an important part of tourism business of any state, including in the Republic of Kazakhstan. At the same time, mountain tourism programs are relevant. In this regard, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a shortage of qualified mountain guides has become apparent and aggravated. Also, often the services of a guide are performed by persons who do not have professional training to work with clients in the mountains. This fact is confirmed by periodic extreme situations, led by an unprepared guide. This article describes our innovative experience in training mountain guides for the tourism business in Almaty. This article describes our innovative experience in training mountain guides in tourism business in Almaty. The choice of training this particular category of specialists is due to the presence of a large amount of tourist and recreational resources for the development of mountain tourism near the city of Almaty. We believe that the mountain guide training project will be in high demand.