Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The Second Road Travel Exhibition, organized by the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic in Uzbekistan, the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic, took place in Tashkent on 24 April.

Road Show is a modern platform, which provides a unique opportunity for representatives of the tourism business of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to establish direct contacts, find new partners and conclude mutually beneficial agreements. The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of ministries and departments, the diplomatic corps, tourism organizations of the two countries and the media.

Abdulaziz Akkulov, Acting Chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development; Ibragim Junusov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kyrgyz Republic to Uzbekistan; and Maksat Damir uulu, Director of the Tourism Department of the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic, opened the event.

Greeting the guests and participants of the event, Abdulaziz Akkulov noted that tourism is defined as a strategic sector of the economy of Uzbekistan:

“Special attention is paid to the support of investment projects. Thus, over the past 2 years, the President’s decisions have provided about 20 types of benefits and preferences for investors implementing tourism projects,” he said.

In particular, measures have been taken to stimulate business entities to build hotels and other infrastructure, including a simplified registration and travel business, customs and tax benefits for hotel builders, as well as investor compensation mechanisms for the construction and equipping of new hotels. commissioning until 1 January 2022. "

Akkulov highlighted the results of close and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries: “The intensification of bilateral cooperation is reflected in the statistics of tourist flow. So, if in 2017, the number of visitors from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan was 366,000, then in the past 2018, this figure reached 1 million 56 thousand people. The growth of tourist flow is almost three,” he noted.

In his welcoming speech, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kyrgyz Republic to Uzbekistan Ibrahim Junusov noted that the main purpose of the event is to promote the tourism potential of the two countries, attract tourist flow and investment, as well as establish contacts between representatives of tourism organizations:

 “Following the results of last year’s exhibition, as well as the active work on promoting tourism and increasing the number of tourists from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan, in 2018 this direction came out on top. According to the Department of Tourism at the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic for 2018, according to the classification of the World Tourism Organization at the UN, about 3 million people arrived from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan compared to 380,000 people in 2017. I will note that such achievements are achieved within the framework of an open and trustful dialogue between the Presidents of our countries, with the intensive development of the Kyrgyz-Uzbek strategic partnership, the establishment of direct relations, and the expansion of trade and economic cooperation and cultural and humanitarian exchange. ”

The exhibition program included the B2B meetings of the tourist business of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and the presentation of the tourism potential of the two countries. More than 60 companies from the tourism industry arrived from Kyrgyzstan to attend the event.