Travel in Uzbekistan

Strong government support for the travel market with liberalisation and investment

The Uzbekistan government continued to implement decisive actions and strong investments in tourism in 2019. Active efforts to promote the country and develop the infrastructure needed to realise its growth potential continued to support increases in inbound and domestic trips, in turn leading to strong growth for airlines and lodging.

Strong growth for online sales from a small base, but a long way to go yet

Despite strong growth, online sales witnessed little development in 2019. However, this is quite normal for Uzbekistan and the country is still adjusting to the idea that the internet can be a source of goods and services as well as information.

The competitive environment begins to develop as the government encourages international players to enter the country

Travel is an area of heightened interest for the Uzbekistan government, which has placed serious hopes in the development of the travel industry as a way of attracting revenues into the country’s dwindling economy. The previous position of the government was to maintain tight control over areas in which it is interested so as to ensure a satisfactory performance.

Strong promotional efforts begin to show results

Uzbekistan’s travel market is not traditionally known for being particularly innovative, mainly due to the relatively underdeveloped state of the industry, which means that the development of most of the emerging categories and features are driven primarily by the top-down approach at the core of the approach of the government, which retains a strong presence in all travel categories. Recently, the government of Uzbekistan invested in promoting the country more explicitly as an international tourism destination abroad and this included the organisation of several sponsored cultural tours for high-profile tourists and the establishment of a multi-language tourist assistance call centre and this has definitely yielded results as inbound arrivals to the country have increased significantly in recent years.

Positive forecast for the country, supported by government intervention

As with numerous countries in Central Asia, Uzbekistan’s travel industry remains relatively underdeveloped and industry stakeholders are still discovering new ways to build on the undeniable growth potential of the country’s travel industry. At the end of the review period, there remained significant potential for further growth, with numerous attractive development opportunities presenting themselves.

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