In the first half of this year more than million foreign tourists visited Uzbekistan. The number of tourists last year increased up to 2 mln people from more than 70 countries. For the last two years this indication has raised for 43%. This and other facts related to tourism development in Uzbekistan were mentioned by the President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov within the framework of the 99th Session of the UNWTO Executive Council that took place in Samarkand on the first days of October.
It was noted that the exports of tour services in 2013 exceeded 615 million dollars. Today, the travel industry employs more than 200 thousand people, and the aggregate input of the sector into the GDP has surpassed 2 percent.
To date, Uzbekistan houses more than 7 thousand monuments of various epochs and civilizations. Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Shakhrisabz are included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Kinds of tourism such as ecotourism, geotourism, extreme, medical and cultural, horse-riding, camel-riding, car-riding, alpinism, fishing and rafting are actively being developed here.
550 tour companies operate currently in the country, 110 international tourist routes cover the majority of historic facilities and architectural monuments, including 65 along the objects of historical and cultural heritage, 30 are nature-recreational, 15 ecological routes with elements of health improvement tourism.
Currently, more than 500 hotels, motels and camping sites are operatinf; airports in big cities of Uzbekistan have been modernized such as Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Urgench, Ferghana and Navoi.
The national airline has regular flights to more than 50 cities in Europe, Asia, Middle East and North America, and a daily high-speed rail service is organized along the route Tashkent-Samarkand-Tashkent by modern trains manufactured by the Spanish company.
