Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- An international tourism fair FITUR-2019, which has become traditional for Uzbekistan, has recently ended in the capital of Spain.

This year at the forum in the Spanish capital, Uzbekistan was represented by a delegation of representatives of domestic travel companies, the State Committee of Tourism, Uzbekistan Airways. All assistance was provided by Uzbek diplomats in Spain.

The international tourist exhibition FITUR is the first in the year largest world tourist event, in which representatives of all segments of the industry take part: tour operators, travel agencies, associations, hotels, carriers, tourism offices, service companies. This year, more than 10,000 companies from 165 countries of the world participated in the fair.

During the exhibition, a presentation on the topic “Tourism Opportunities of Uzbekistan”, prepared jointly with the Ibero-American Union of Tourism Professionals, was presented to its participants and organizers, local and foreign media. The participants acquainted with the wide tourism opportunities of Uzbekistan and the current level of development of the tourism industry, the steps being taken to facilitate entry procedures in the republic for those who want to get in touch with the history and culture of the Uzbek people.

Speaking at the presentation, President of the Ibero-American Union of Tourism Professionals, José Luis Lorenzo, noted that the abolition of the visa regime for 64 countries, the introduction of the e-visa system for 76 countries, testifies not only to Uzbekistan’s desire to develop tourism, but also to the desire investors, open up the country to the whole world. The reforms carried out in the last two years are already yielding results, as the figures eloquently show: the number of tourists visiting Uzbekistan increased almost 2 times, from 2.6 million in 2017 to 5.3 million in 2018th.

During their stay in Madrid, the delegation of the Republic of Uzbekistan took part in the conference “The Silk Road - the Road of Peace”, organized by the Spanish Silk Institute together with UNESCO. The conference highlighted the role of our country and the “Samarkand Declaration on the Development of Tourism on the Great Silk Road” from 1995, which served as the starting point for the revival of tourism along the Silk Road, which united many countries from China to Spain and became one of the most popular tourist brands.

During the exhibition, B2B negotiations of our representatives with Spanish tour companies, advertising agencies, airlines, hotel chains and potential investors took place.