Since 2017, Uzbekistan’s tourism industry, like other areas, has been going through a period of rapid reform and a global review of the state policy aimed at accelerated development, employment of the population, and improving general well-being.

In a short period, an unprecedented package of legal acts was adopted, including a new law on tourism, which create a solid legal basis for the gradual reform of the tourism sector, in particular, providing the necessary conditions and a comfortable environment for interested business entities.

It is necessary to emphasize the efforts made by the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in terms of the accelerated development of the tourism industry of the country, giving it a strategic vector of development. Specific goals have been set to increase the number of local tourists to 12 million or more, foreign tourists to 9 million people.

It is planned to widely introduce barrier-free tourism infrastructure in the main tourist cities of the country and increase the number of people employed in the tourism sector to 520 thousand people by 2026.

According to the Research Institute for the Study of the Problems of Cultural Heritage Sites and Tourism Development, as of January 1, 2023, 2,500 people are engaged in excursion activities in the country. The largest number of guides is in Samarkand region – 36.7 percent, Tashkent city – 28.9 percent, Bukhara region – 16.7 percent, Khorezm region – 8.6 percent, of which 54 percent are men, 46 percent are women.

Today excursions in Uzbekistan are conducted in 20 languages. The most popular in 2022 were guides with knowledge of Uzbek, Russian, English, Turkish and Korean.

Currently, 31 educational organizations are training guides in the country, of which 12 are higher education institutions, 8 are colleges/technical schools of tourism and cultural heritage, 11 are private education institutions.

In 2023, Uzbekistan is expected to increase the tourist flow to 7 million people. The following factors contribute to this: attraction of 20 new foreign airlines from such countries as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Vietnam and others; resumption of air links with China; expanding the geography of visitors (guests from South America, Portugal, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and other countries); opening of new tourist sites.

Experts predict that the number of new guides in the labor market will double by the end of 2023.

UzA