Aziz Abdukhakimov: Small hotels and hostels to be built in Uzbekistan to accommodate more tourists

On the initiative of President Shavkat Mirziyoev, the Uzbek government adopted a resolution on intensifying the construction of small hotels and hostels designed for 8-50 seats based on standard projects in the country. Deputy Prime Minister Aziz Abdukhakimov said that 345 such facilities will be built in 41 cities and districts of Uzbekistan.

“In the first nine months of 2018, 4.4 million people visited Uzbekistan. It is two times more than in the same period last year. Introduction of a visa-free regime for 17 countries, simplification of issuing visa for citizens of 50 countries and wide promotion of tourism potential of Uzbekistan have resulted in such achievements. At the same time, domestic tourism has been actively developing in the country. The number of local tourists in 2017 reached 10.6 million people. It is predicted that this figure will increase up to 14 million in 2018. We hope that the number of tourists will keep on increasing,” Aziz Abdukhakimov said. “Construction of new small hotels and hostels will help to create favorable conditions for accommodating tourists. It also contributes to the expansion of the range of tourist services, diversification and development of hotel services.”

“In tourism-developed countries, the share of small hotels occupies most of the digital fund segment. For example, in Western Europe – 60%, in Malaysia – 70% and in New Zealand – 80%. In the European Union, the number of small hotels with up to 50 rooms has been steadily rising and today it is about 200,000. In Turkey in the late 1990s, similar measures were taken to address the problem of lack of accommodation for tourists during peak tourism periods - construction of small and medium-sized hotels were intensified. Today, there are hotels designated for 30-50 beds,” Deputy PM said.

Small hotels and hostels will be built with the support of the State Committee for Tourism Development. Projects will be developed by “Kishlokkurilishloyikha” LLC taking into account the foreign, primarily the Turkish and South Korean, experience of designing. The project of small hotels and hostels will be presented to investor-entrepreneurs on a voluntary basis.