As we know, Uzbekistan has been taking significant steps in developing the tourism sector in the recent years, where the initial actions in this regard were taken before the COVID-19 pandemic, such as implementing visa-free travel to Uzbekistan for many countries in the world.
As the number of the countries offered a visa-free entry to Uzbekistan expands, making it a total of 93 countries today, we can see a huge flow of international travelers visiting Uzbekistan’s various destinations, starting their trip in Tashkent, followed by a tour to Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
As a result, over the past five years, our country has significantly improved its performance in tourism field and climbed 16 positions in the ranking for the development of the tourism and travel sector.
Uzbekistan was announced in the top list of countries most actively developed their economies for the global tourism market. This follows from a report on the state of the international travel and tourism market prepared by the World Economic Forum.
During this period, the country rose by 16 positions (+7.8%) and took 78th place out of 119 countries in the ranking for the development of the tourism and travel sector.
In addition to Uzbekistan, the list includes Cote d'Ivoire (+6.4%), Albania (+5.9%), Saudi Arabia (+5.7%), Tanzania (+4.5%), Indonesia ( +4.5%), UAE (+4.4%), Egypt (+4.3%), Nigeria (+4.2%) and El Salvador (+4%).
A separate ranking of the top 10 countries in the world was also compiled according to their overall contribution to the development of the global tourism market, which included the USA, Spain, Japan, France, Australia, Germany, Great Britain, China, Italy and Switzerland.
Experts believe that this year, thanks to the lifting of coronavirus restrictions and strong pent-up demand, the international tourism market should reach pre-pandemic levels. We already can see the evidence in our country with the flow of tourists visiting Uzbekistan in 2024.
