BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 15. Uzbekistan looks to develop its tourism sector, with help of Chinese companies, Trend reports via the Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Heritage of Uzbekistan.
The matter was discussed between the First Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of Uzbekistan Ulugbek Azamov, representatives of the “New Silk Road Product Center” at the Chinese “Shaanxi Tourism Group” and representatives of the “Zhejiang Loong Airlines" airline.
During the meeting, the parties discussed the issues of increasing the tourist flow from China to the historical cities of Uzbekistan, developing a special joint tourist route, as well as carrying out regular and charter flights between tourist cities of both countries.
Throughout negotiations, the sides also touched upon questions of exploring China's experience in the development of domestic tourism.
Chinese side emphasized the activities of the Uzbek-Chinese Tourism Development Association, which plays an important role in the development of bilateral cooperation in the field.
Following the talks, the sides agreed on establishing representative offices in Uzbekistan and China in order to strengthen the promotion of the tourism potential of the two countries, as well as reached an agreement on accelerating the opening of joint travel agencies.
According to the Uzbek State Statistics Committee, some 423,700 foreigners visited Uzbekistan in January 2023 for tourism purposes, which is 2.5 times more than in the same period last year. The most tourists came from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Türkiye.
From January through September 2022 almost 3.6 million foreign citizens visited Uzbekistan for tourism purposes. This figure increased by 2.4 million people or 3.2 times compared to the same period in 2021.