Tuesday, July 03, 2012 -
Uzbekistan is working on a tourism campaign based on the model used by Malaysia, the Uzbek deputy tourism minister said last week to Malaysian officials visiting the Uzbek capital Tashkent.
Uzbek Deputy Tourism Minister Alisher Shamsiyev told a visiting Malaysian business delegation Friday his government will tailor their successful ‘Visit Malaysia Year’ program for itself.
Tashkent has already begun preparations to launch a ‘Visit Uzbekistan Year’ project, he told the group of travel agents and journalists.
“Although we are fully aware that a lot of work needs to be done, which involves many ministries here, this is another project that we are currently pushing on,” Shamsiyev said, the Kuala Lumpur-based Bernama news agency reported.
Part of the strategy involves dropping visa requirements for foreign visitors, he noted, adding that Uzbekistan would like to match Malaysia’s 18 countries for free visa access.
Uzbekistan is in talks with foreign investors from the United States, Russia, South Korea, and China on developing the country’s infrastructural facilities to ramp up the tourist arrivals which currently reach 1.3 million per year, he said.
The Tashkent government plans world class hotels and similar facilities, and improved road infrastructure between historic sites along the Silk Road, from Samarkand city to Hunza province.