Kemal Kantarci, PhD, is an associate professor of tourism management at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. His teaching and research interests are destination management and marketing, tourism geography, and tourism marketing. He also works as a consultant to public and private sector organizations. He has published several papers in international and national journals and proceedings. His studies are mainly focused on tourism opportunities and challenges in Central Asian and Balkan countries. Dr. Kantarci has visited Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, as visiting professor and worked as a full-time lecturer at Ahmet Yesevi University, Kazakhstan. He currently teaches in the areas of tourism management, tourism geography, destination development, and tourism policy and planning.Muzaffer Uysal, PhD, is a professor of tourism in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. He has extensive experience in the travel and tourism field, authoring or co-authoring a significant number of articles in tourism, hospitality, and recreation journals, proceedings, book chapters, and five monographs, and five books related to tourism research methods, tourist service satisfaction, tourism and quality of life, creating experience value in tourism, consumer psychology in tourism, and hospitality settings. He is a member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and the Academy of Leisure Sciences, and serves as co-editor of Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He has received a number of awards for research and excellence in international education, and teaching. His current research interests center on tourism demand/supply interaction, tourism development, and QOL research in tourism.Vincent Magnini, PhD, is an associate professor of hospitality management in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. His research interests reside mainly in the area of service management. He is as an associate editor to the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly and also serves on the editorial boards of a number of other journals, including the International Journal of Hospitality Management, the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, and the Journal of Travel Research. His recent book, titled Performance Enhancers: Twenty Essential Habits for Service Businesses, is being widely read across a variety of service sectors.

"[This book] has the merit of focusing on Central Asia, a geographical area that has received little attention in academic literature. Also, the book presents a balanced mix of theoretical and empirical chapters; this, coupled with the fact that the empirical contributions adopt both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches, helps the book to raise the spectrum of its potential reader. . . Overall, the book is well-structured and achieves one of its main goals, which is deepening the understanding that both researchers and practitioners can have about Central Asia as an emerging and promising tourism destination in the international tourism arena. Further, as the editors state, the book represents a springboard to open further research venues to offer a deep and critical analysis of the potential and challenges of tourism in this region and beyond."—Annals of Tourism Research, by Mohammad Sharifi-Tehrani, Department of Business Management, University of Isfahan, Iran, and Giacomo Del Chiappa, Department of Economics and Business and CRENoS, University of Sassari, Italy"This book aims to be an invaluable source for both tourism practitioners and academicians who are interested in this region. . . . The strength of the book lies in its comprehensive approach. This is one of the first attempts to offer insightful discussions of many aspects of potentials and challenges in Central Asian states by bringing together ‘key writings on this topic in a single resource’ (p. 6). . . . Overall, this book is a significant addition to tourism research in Central Asian countries, which will stimulate more interest and provoke more questions on issues discussed in the book. Tourism scholars and practitioners will find the book a valuable resource, especially if they do not have direct access to tourism studies in Central Asian countries’ native languages." — Tourism Analysis, Review by Xiangping Li, Institute for Tourism Studies Macao, China

• Preface. Exploring Tourism Potential in Central Asia. Competitiveness of Tourism Industry in Kazakhstan. Authenticity and Eco-Cultural Tourism Development in Kazakhstan: Potential and Challenges. Bukhara: The Princess of Cities. Khiva: A Conserved Heritage within the Sands. Merv: An Oasis Capital in the Ancient Paradise. Samarkand: Queen of All Cities. Cinema as Branding. Clustering Silk Road Countries Based on Competitiveness Factors in Tourism Industry. Visa Regimes and Regulatory Documents as an Obstacle for Tourism Development in Central Asia. Tourism in Kyrgyzstan. ICT Diffusion and the Digital Divide in Tourism: Kazakhstan Perspective. Perceptions of Foreign Investors on the Tourism Market in Central Asia. A Chronology of Central Asia. Index.

Kemal Kantarci, PhD, is an associate professor of tourism management at Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey. His teaching and research interests are destination management and marketing, tourism geography, and tourism marketing. He also works as a consultant to public and private sector organizations. He has published several papers in international and national journals and proceedings. His studies are mainly focused on tourism opportunities and challenges in Central Asian and Balkan countries. Dr. Kantarci has visited Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA, as visiting professor and worked as a full-time lecturer at Ahmet Yesevi University, Kazakhstan. He currently teaches in the areas of tourism management, tourism geography, destination development, and tourism policy and planning.Muzaffer Uysal, PhD, is a professor of tourism in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. He has extensive experience in the travel and tourism field, authoring or co-authoring a significant number of articles in tourism, hospitality, and recreation journals, proceedings, book chapters, and five monographs, and five books related to tourism research methods, tourist service satisfaction, tourism and quality of life, creating experience value in tourism, consumer psychology in tourism, and hospitality settings. He is a member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism and the Academy of Leisure Sciences, and serves as co-editor of Tourism Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Journal. He has received a number of awards for research and excellence in international education, and teaching. His current research interests center on tourism demand/supply interaction, tourism development, and QOL research in tourism.Vincent Magnini, PhD, is an associate professor of hospitality management in the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Pamplin College of Business of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. His research interests reside mainly in the area of service management. He is as an associate editor to the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly and also serves on the editorial boards of a number of other journals, including the International Journal of Hospitality Management, the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research, and the Journal of Travel Research. His recent book, titled Performance Enhancers: Twenty Essential Habits for Service Businesses, is being widely read across a variety of service sectors.

"[This book] has the merit of focusing on Central Asia, a geographical area that has received little attention in academic literature. Also, the book presents a balanced mix of theoretical and empirical chapters; this, coupled with the fact that the empirical contributions adopt both qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches, helps the book to raise the spectrum of its potential reader. . . Overall, the book is well-structured and achieves one of its main goals, which is deepening the understanding that both researchers and practitioners can have about Central Asia as an emerging and promising tourism destination in the international tourism arena. Further, as the editors state, the book represents a springboard to open further research venues to offer a deep and critical analysis of the potential and challenges of tourism in this region and beyond."—Annals of Tourism Research, by Mohammad Sharifi-Tehrani, Department of Business Management, University of Isfahan, Iran, and Giacomo Del Chiappa, Department of Economics and Business and CRENoS, University of Sassari, Italy"This book aims to be an invaluable source for both tourism practitioners and academicians who are interested in this region. . . . The strength of the book lies in its comprehensive approach. This is one of the first attempts to offer insightful discussions of many aspects of potentials and challenges in Central Asian states by bringing together ‘key writings on this topic in a single resource’ (p. 6). . . . Overall, this book is a significant addition to tourism research in Central Asian countries, which will stimulate more interest and provoke more questions on issues discussed in the book. Tourism scholars and practitioners will find the book a valuable resource, especially if they do not have direct access to tourism studies in Central Asian countries’ native languages." — Tourism Analysis, Review by Xiangping Li, Institute for Tourism Studies Macao, China

• Preface. Exploring Tourism Potential in Central Asia. Competitiveness of Tourism Industry in Kazakhstan. Authenticity and Eco-Cultural Tourism Development in Kazakhstan: Potential and Challenges. Bukhara: The Princess of Cities. Khiva: A Conserved Heritage within the Sands. Merv: An Oasis Capital in the Ancient Paradise. Samarkand: Queen of All Cities. Cinema as Branding. Clustering Silk Road Countries Based on Competitiveness Factors in Tourism Industry. Visa Regimes and Regulatory Documents as an Obstacle for Tourism Development in Central Asia. Tourism in Kyrgyzstan. ICT Diffusion and the Digital Divide in Tourism: Kazakhstan Perspective. Perceptions of Foreign Investors on the Tourism Market in Central Asia. A Chronology of Central Asia. Index.