TASHKENT - From January to April, 4 million foreign tourists visited Uzbekistan, a 30% increase compared to the same period last year. This was announced at a press conference on May 15 by Abdulaziz Akkulov, Chairman of the Tourism Committee, Gazeta.uz reports.
During this period, tourists received services worth $1.6 billion, Akkulov said. Compared to January to April 2025, this represents a 40% increase.
"The number of tourists from China increased 3.5 times compared to the same period last year, from Japan 1.6 times, from Malaysia 2.2 times, from the US 1.4 times, and from France, the UK, Spain, Turkey, and Germany 1.2 times." "Under the "Travel around Uzbekistan" program, 6.84 million trips were organized for local tourists across the regions, an increase of 18%," he said.
400 billion soums were allocated for the development of tourism infrastructure in Uzbekistan in 2024 and 710 billion soums in 2025. 1.16 trillion soums have been allocated from the state budget for this year.
"These funds will be used for paving tourist roads, installing electricity and water lines, installing benches and trash containers, improving embankments, and dozens of other areas. As part of these programs, 40,000 jobs are planned to be created in tourism and related industries in 2026-2027." "Of these, 24,000 will be new jobs, and another 16,000 will be created by reshoring employment from the informal sector," said Abdulaziz Akkulov.
According to him, in the first four months of this year, six entrepreneurs who built three- and four-star hotels received subsidies totaling 4 billion soums. The number of tourist villages and mahallas has been increased to 44. The number of tour operators and travel agents has exceeded 4,600.
Uzbekistan plans to increase tourist flow to 20 million people by 2030 and increase tourism's share of the economy to 7%.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
May 19, 2026