President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a video conference on 22 February 2018, which was dedicated to a critical analysis of effectiveness of measures taken to increase the flow of foreign tourists, further development of domestic tourism, and improvement and expansion of tourism services.

At the meeting, instructions were given to complete introduction of e-visas in a timely manner, further simplify the system with study of world experience and consistent simplification of the order of visiting Uzbekistan by foreign tourists.

It was said that the order, according to which tourists should register at the place of residence within 3 days from the time of arrival in Uzbekistan, creates for them inconvenience. It was stressed that ensuring the safety of tourists is the task of law enforcement agencies.

The tourist should travel, and not go to the institutions of internal affairs. If we want to create jobs through tourism, it is necessary not to make demands to the tourists, but to create conditions for them, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.

In this connection, instructions are given to transfer the registration system completely to the electronic format, to impose registration obligations on internal affairs bodies, hotels, medical institutions, private homes and other individuals and legal entities that host tourists, freeing them from this care.

It was underlined that Uzbekistan was visited by almost 2.7 million tourists in 2017, with most of them are those who come to see relatives, to receive medical service, to study, for commercial and other purposes.

The enormous potential of Uzbekistan in the sphere of tourism has not been used effectively and fully for many years. Favorable economic and organizational-legal conditions for development of tourism were not created, work in the sphere was neglected.

The State Committee for Development of Uzbekistan was entrusted to ensure an increase in the number of tourists in all promising areas of tourism and the volume of real export of tourist services by at least two times in the next five years.