Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug 26
By Fakhri Vakilov -Trend:
Uzbekistan took second place among the CIS countries in the ranking of the most open visa regimes, Trend reports citing the press service of the Senate of the Parliament of Uzbekistan.
Chairman of the State Committee for Tourism Development Abdulaziz Akkulov made this announcement during the plenary session of the Senate.
Uzbekistan increased tourist flow, while taking steps for modernization of infrastructure and liberalization of the visa regime, the report said.
According to the results of the first half of the year, the number of foreign tourists arriving in the country amounted to more than three million, which is 31 percent more than in the same period in 2018.
Tourism services exports grew to $1.04 billion in 2018. In the first half of 2019, this indicator already amounted to $590.5 million. The mentioned trends and quantitative results also affect the development of tourist infrastructure.
With an increase in the length of stay of foreign tourists in the country, an increase in the load on accommodation facilities is also observed, which positively affects employment in tourist infrastructure facilities.
However, according to the Senate, there are a number of problems in this area. It was emphasized that some involved ministries and departments had a misconception that tourism development issues were in the exclusive responsibility of the State Committee for Tourism Development.
For this reason, there is a weak interdepartmental coordination, reflected in the development and adoption of certain regulatory legal acts, the provisions of which often do not correspond to state policy in the field of tourism.
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