Kyrgyzstan to introduce mandatory tourist insurance
Kyrgyzstan is introducing mandatory insurance for tourists, with tour operators required to provide liability coverage for every traveller, Qazinform News Agency reports.
The Cabinet of Ministers of the Kyrgyz Republic has adopted the relevant resolution.
The mechanism is designed to shift the financial risks associated with complex search-and-rescue operations and the evacuation of injured people in the mountains from the state budget to the insurance market. It is also intended to protect travellers and make tourism in the country safer.
Under the new system, tour operators will be required to obtain liability insurance for each tourist.
Insurance coverage will vary depending on the type of trip:
- up to 3 million Kyrgyz soms for traditional tours, including sightseeing, cultural and educational, health and recreational tours;
- up to 5 million Kyrgyz soms for adventure tourism, including mountaineering, skiing, rafting and trekking in remote areas.
An insurance policy will become a mandatory requirement for tour operators to operate legally.
A five- to seven-day insurance policy is expected to cost around 3,000 soms, or roughly 400-500 soms per day. The average price of a traditional multi-day tour in Kyrgyzstan ranges from 15,000 to 25,000 soms.
The new rules come amid growing attention to the risks faced by tourists and climbers in Kyrgyzstan’s mountains. In August 2025, Russian mountaineer Natalia Nagovitsina suffered a broken leg while climbing Victory Peak, which stands at more than 7,000 meters above sea level. She remained stranded on the mountain while awaiting rescue. On September 2, 2026, Nagovitsina was declared dead in Kyrgyzstan.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that two Russian climbers, injured during separate ascents in Kazakhstan’s Ile-Alatau mountain range, had been airlifted to safety by emergency services.