Les guides de montagne d’Asie centrale et l’activité de tourisme sportif

• Main Authors: Julie Hallé, Michel Raspaud
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Éditions Touristiques Européennes 2012-12-01
• Series: Mondes du Tourisme
• Subjects: mountain guides; Central Asian states; mountain tourism
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/tourisme/245

Independence (1991) pushes the Central Asian states to engage in a simultaneous transformation of their political and economic models. This transition is marked by the persistence of certain traits of the Soviet system, but also by the adoption of economic behavior that are difficult to control. Building on the work of Andreff (2007), we specify the characteristics of the transition and analyze its effects and consequences on the activity of mountain guides. The opening to international tourism and the gradual restructuring of the field of sports tourism in these countries changed the conditions of exercise of the activity. We study the dynamics of socio-professional mountain guides as a social group, which are indicative of changes in Central Asian societies. For this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with local actors through a field survey of seven months, from 2004 to 2006. The results show the progressive structuring of the activity of mountain guide as a profession through the opening to international tourism and the creation of companies specializing in mountain tourism. The study reveals how these new players continue to use interpersonal arrangements while seeking to establish new performance standards to reach the level of Western standards in tourism. Otherwise, certain specificities are highlighted in the construction of the professionalization of the mountain guide in these republics.