Baku, Azerbaijan, February 23
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
Uzbekistan was invited to become a member of the European Umbrella Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Bars and Cafes (HOTREC), Trend reports with reference to press-service of foreign ministry.
Chief Executive Officer of HOTREC Christian de Barrin made this offer after the negotiations with Uzbek Ambassador in Belgium Dilyor Khakimov.
It was emphasized during the negotiations that hospitality lies at the heart of the development of European tourism. The industry provides 11.9 million jobs in the EU.
"The parties highly appreciated the transformations in Uzbek tourism industry that have become the most impressive trend of the global tourism industry over the past two years," press service of Uzbek Foreign Ministry said.
Uzbekistan shows a doubling of its tourist flow while global tourism is growing at 7 percent and by 8 percent in Europe. In this regard, the parties reaffirmed the interest in early establishment of cooperation and partnership in development of sustainable tourism, as well as further innovation and adaptation of travel services in Uzbekistan.
This requires major quality investments that will be made on the basis of a multilateral approach, partly funded by industry partners from EU countries. It also entails collaboration and research on big data for better management of tourist flows, artificial intelligence and blockchains.
The sides organized a conference call with the leadership of Uzbek Association of Cooks as part of the conversation, where a plan for upcoming contacts was prepared.
As a result of negotiations, the European side invited Uzbekistan to become a member of HOTREC. The necessary procedures will be initiated soon for this purpose. Furthermore, the Association has been invited to the FoodWeek & Horeca Uzbekistan 2019 international food and packaging exhibition.
The Association of European Hospitality HOTREC consists of an executive committee and 42 member organizations operating in 30 European countries. Georgia, Turkey and a number of other non-European states are among the observer countries.
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