Topics Familiarization (FAM) tour for international travel bloggers - 2020

In February 2020, the FAM tour was organized for six leading English- and Russian-speaking travel bloggers and active users of social media to present Kyrgyzstan’s winter tourism potential. Thе FAM tour was organized by the Sustainable Winter Tourism Development Project (Helvetas), funded by the Swiss government in partnership with the USAID Project on competitiveness, trade and jobs in Central Asia and Department of Tourism under the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism.

The bloggers took part in an exciting and unique tour specially prepared by the Kyrgyz Community-Based Tourism Association (KCBTA) that included active winter tourism, such as freeride skiing and snowboarding, paragliding, visiting ski bases, natural attractions and cultural events, presenting Kyrgyzstan as an attractive country for winter travel. A 10-day tour started with the bloggers' participation in the Alpine Skiing Festival at "ZIL" ski resort, then travelers visited Chunkurchak gorge with ski base and Supara ethno-resort, tried unexplored trails in Ak-Suu and Jyrgalan, got familiar with Kyrgyz history and culture, visited many cultural and historical sites along the way.

During and after the tour, the travel bloggers prepared engaging online content with photos (please see below) and videos of their experiences in Kyrgyzstan to inspire their subscribers and winter travelers to visit Kyrgyzstan soon.

This folder contains the photo materials produced by international bloggers.

Winter tourism in Kyrgyzstan
Winter tourism in Karakol

The bloggers' publications can be found by hashtags #DiscoverKyrgyzstan or on social media at DiscoverKyrgyzstan on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Jared Salem - NOMADasaurus, Alexander Gabchenko - Gabchenko_kz, Alexandra Reynolds - Lost With Purpose, Nicholas Bertrand - Journal of Nomads, Stanislav Stepanov - Gelio, Danat Aliev - dan_a_t" participated in promoting Kyrgyzstan as an attractive country for winter tourism.

Swiss Sustainable Winter Tourism Development Project