Baku, Azerbaijan, July 13
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
A new tourism development program will be developed in Uzbekistan to increase the flow of visitors from other countries to 10 million people a year, Trend reports citing Sputnik Uzbekistan.
Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov noted that President Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued the relevant instructions after having familiarized himself with the results of the Council of Tourism of the CIS countries which was held in the framework of the First Tourism Fair in Samarkand on July 10-11.
Abdukhakimov stated that 10 million tourists is an attainable figure. It is expected that by the end of this year the figure will be 6.4-6.5 million people.
"We must continue to work on the development of pilgrimage tourism, agro-tourism, ethno-tourism - this is what can attract more visitors to the country. The next direction is a cardinal solution of issues with logistics and access to Uzbekistan," the deputy prime minister said.
He stressed that Uzbekistan is in the middle of the continent, air tickets are very expensive and there is a monopoly of the national carrier.
“It is necessary for the national air carrier to become one of the dominant ones on the market. At the same time there is a need of free competition and free access for foreign airlines to the Uzbek market,” he added.
In addition, the construction of hotels is in full swing in Uzbekistan. Now the authorities offer businessmen benefits - for example, compensation: for a single room of a three-star hotel - 40 million soums and 65 million soums for a four-star hotel.
"This benefit is already working. To date, ten hotels have filed applications; we will compensate them for everything. Thirty are preparing," Abdukhakimov said.
Furthermore, Uzbekistan has simplified the requirements for hostels, after which they began rapidly increase in quantities, and also introduced the Airbnb system, thanks to which every citizen can receive guests under certain conditions.
Airbnb is an online platform for hosting, searching and short-term rental of private housing around the world.
($1- 8583 soums on July 13)
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