ABSTRACT
Introduction ........................................................................................... 308 Tourism Investment Conditions .............................................................311 Findings................................................................................................. 316 Regression Analysis .............................................................................. 323 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 325 Acknowledgment .................................................................................. 327 Keywords .............................................................................................. 327 References ............................................................................................. 327 Further Reading .................................................................................... 329
INTRODUCTION
Central Asia (CA) has a rich history, to which numerous tribes and nationalities have contributed over the last 2500 years. A vital factor in the history of the southern part of the region was its location astride the most direct trade route between China and Europe, the so called Silk Route which began to develop in the Roman times (Buyers, 2003; Akayev, 2001). CA countries-Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan-contain a large and rich untapped tourism market that has great potential for foreign tourism investors and in particular for Turkish tourism investors. At the same time CA, as a new destination, has been gaining importance in the travel and tourism international market (Ghosh et al., 2003a, 2003b; Jeffries, 2003; Jenkins, 1997; Qu and Zhang, 1997).
