Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 10 November 2020, a regular meeting of the Tourism Council of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States was held in video conference mode under the chairmanship of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The event was attended by the heads of the tourism administrations of the CIS member states and senior representatives of the CIS Executive Committee. During the event, the members of the Tourism Council discussed: 

- the measures taken in the tourism sector in the CIS member states to overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic; 

- experience of the Commonwealth countries on the implementation of e-visa systems, liberalization of entry visas; 

- determination of the base organization of the CIS member states in the field of tourism; 

- consideration of the draft Action Plan for 2021–2023 on the implementation of the Strategy for the Development of Cooperation of the CIS Member States in Tourism for 2021–2030 and other issues.

It was noted that the priority task of the Council’s activities in 2021 will be to help restore the tourism industry of the CIS member states, including international tourism. In this regard, the CIS Tourism Council approved the initiative of the Republic of Uzbekistan, made during the online travel forum on 11 September on the establishment under the Council of a Working Group on Responding to Challenges in Tourism.

It has been determined that the members of this Working Group on a quarterly basis will hold online meetings on acute issues, challenges and proposals in the field of tourism. Particular attention of the Council members was paid to the timely implementation of the Decision of the Council of CIS Heads of Government from 29 May 2020 "on the Strategy for the Development of Cooperation of the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the field of tourism for 2021-2030".

A decision was made to hold on 9 December 2020, in the CIS Executive Committee (Minsk), by videoconference, a meeting of the expert group to finalize the draft Action Plan for 2021–2023 for the implementation of the Strategy for further domestic coordination and its submission to the Council of CIS Foreign Ministers.

One of the main decisions of the last meeting of the Tourism Council was the unanimous support of the proposal of the Republic of Uzbekistan on giving the status of the basic organization of the CIS member states in the field of tourism to the International University of Tourism "Silk Road".

In turn, the CIS Executive Committee expressed gratitude to the Republic of Uzbekistan (as an option to the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development) for the successful chairmanship and high level of organization of the work of the Tourism Council of the CIS member states.

It was emphasized that under the chairmanship of the Republic of Uzbekistan, documents and initiatives important for the Council and its members were worked out, new formats of interaction were proposed, modern approaches to solving challenges and tasks that raised cooperation within the Council to a qualitatively new level.

At the end of the event, the chairmanship of the Tourism Council for the next period was transferred to the Republic of Armenia on a rotation basis and it was decided to hold the next meeting of the Council in the first half of 2021 in the city of Yerevan. In turn, the Armenian side announced the continuation of the format put forward by the Republic of Uzbekistan and expressed its readiness to organize a Tourism Fair of the CIS member states in the margins of the meeting of the Tourism Council in 2021. For reference: the initiative to hold the CIS Tourism Fair was put forward by the Republic of Uzbekistan during the meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State in Dushanbe on 28 September 2018. The first such fair took place on 9 July 2019. in Samarkand.