OREANDA-NEWS. April 12, 2012. Uzbekistan has a huge potential in tourism sphere. The unique historical monuments, places of worship, beautiful nature of the country, unique culture, rich traditions and customs of Uzbek people attract tourists.

It creates extensive and favorable conditions for expanding cooperation with foreign partners.

The marketing projects, mega-info-tours organized by national company Uzbektourism yielding good results in this direction.

Relationship with more than 200 travel companies of many countries like Italy, Spain, France, Japan, China, Britain, Russia, Netherlands, Hungary and Singapore established in the framework of them.

In 2011, about hundred representatives of 600 tourist agencies and companies from almost 40 countries have participated in the conferences devoted to the prospects of tourism development and strengthening profitable relationships.

According to the national company Uzbektourism, currently 828 tourist organizations: 510 tour operators and 318 hotels operating in the country.

In the opinion of the experts, the project mega-info-tours will increase the inflow of tourists to Uzbekistan in 2012 on average by 15 per cent.

It should be noted that the provision of modern hotel services is an important factor in tourism development and growth of tourists’ inflow.

Therefore, today the hotel business is seen as an important industry, significantly contributing to the sustainable development of the economy.

The number of companies, tour operators providing services in this sphere is growing more and more.

Dozens of comfortable hotels, capable to provide services at the level of modern requirements and to receive foreign delegations were built in Uzbekistan in the years of independence.

Existing hotels were reconstructed on the basis of modern and national architecture traditions. One example, before independence there was no five-star hotels in Uzbekistan.

Now, more than 40 of nearly 60 hotels of Tashkent city have a certificate of compliance with international standards.

Most of them are three-, four- and five-star hotels. Hotels of “Intercontinental-Tashkent”, “O’zbekiston”, “Tashkent Palace”, “Le Grande Plaza”, “Markaziy”, “Dedeman Silk Road”, “Grand Mir”, “Radisson SAS Tashkent” are among them.

The specialists in such directions like tourism marketing and management, services, international tourism, hospitality and catering are being prepared at the colleges of Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, at the tourism departments of the Tashkent State Economic University, the Samarkand Institute of Economics and Service, as well as the Singapore Institute of Management Development in Tashkent.

Special accommodation centers created in these educational institutions play an important role in consolidating the theoretical knowledge of students.

Expansion of individual tourism requires development of compact and comfortable private hotels’ network. Network of private hotels is rapidly developing also in Uzbekistan. They focus on organization of excursions to the historical monuments and the bosom of nature.

In general, a special attention in the country is paid to the consistent improvement of tourism infrastructure and services.

According to Uzbektourism, 124 tourism companies and 55 hotels started working in 2011.

Until the end of this year, it is planned to build 77 hotels, 90 objects of tourist attractions and 70 objects of tourist services.

Such large-scale reforms implemented in the development of all directions of tourism services, including hotel industry, no doubt, serve to further growth of the economy and wellbeing of people.