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0EXPLORE THE NEW DEVELOPMENT OF UZBEKISTAN'S TOURISM ECONOMY THROUGH THE SILK ROAD
Peng Xinge
Doctor of Economic Sciences, Tashkent State University of Oriental Studies HeBei,China
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13906313
Abstract. Uzbekistan is located in the center of Eurasia and is an important economic hub connecting the East, West, North and south. Uzbekistan has played an important role as a bridge from the ancient "Silk Road" to today's "belt and road". Under the influence of the "belt and road" initiative, Uzbekistan plays an irreplaceable role in the green silk road, the digital silk road, and the healthy silk road. The "belt and road" initiative provides more development opportunities for presidentMirziyoyev's decree to establish a "new Uzbekistan". By combing the theory, program, principles and current situation of the development of the new Silk Road, this paper explores a new path for the innovative development of Uzbekistan's tourism economy, and provides a theoretical basis for the future development of Uzbekistan's tourism.
Keywords: the belt and road initiative; Tourism; New development.
Introduction
Uzbekistan is a beautiful country with a long history. Since the beginning of the Silk Road, China has had active economic and trade exchanges. From the ancient "Silk Road" to the present "belt and road", Uzbekistan is a major transportation route connecting the world. Uzbekistan has great potential in the development of tourism industry. There are more than 7400 cultural heritage projects in Uzbekistan, of which 209 are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. In addition, Uzbekistan has 11 national nature parks and national nature reserves, 12 wildlife reserves, 106 museums and a large number of other projects that attract tourists.
The "belt and road" initiative is an open platform for international and regional cooperation. Countries related to the "belt and road" are based on but not limited to the scope of the ancient Silk Road, and all countries and international and regional organizations can participate. In recent years, the initiative of jointly building the "belt and road" has received positive responses from more and more countries and international organizations, received extensive attention from the international community, and its influence has expanded day by day. Active cooperation with countries along the "belt and road" in the field of tourism will provide Uzbekistan with great opportunities.
Literature review
Abbos Boboxonov, director of the administration of the Ministry of innovation and development of Uzbekistan, believes that the expansion of China's "circle of friends" along the "belt and road" proves that China is a responsible and reputable world partner. The construction of the "belt and road" will help countries along the belt and road to achieve development in the fields of economy, trade, tourism, transportation and logistics, and fundamentally change the current face of Asia as a whole.[1] Director of the Institute for strategic and regional studies of the president of Uzbekistan E.T. Aripov said that the active cooperation with countries along the "belt and road" in the field of tourism has provided Uzbekistan with great opportunities.[2] Uzbekistan is rich in tourism resources, but it still needs to be improved in resource development, tourism management mechanism, professional personnel training, macro management of tourism and the contribution rate of tourism to the economy.[3]
Theoretical Basis
Since the "belt and road" initiative was put forward in 2013, a complete set of institutional framework for the joint construction of the "belt and road" has been basically formed through the exchange of visits between national leaders, the holding of the "belt and road" International Cooperation Summit Forum, the signing of the "belt and road" cooperation agreement between countries, and the formulation of a detailed plan for the joint construction of the "belt and road" national strategy. [4] According to the cooperation focus and spatial layout of jointly building the "belt and road", China has put forward the cooperation framework of "six corridors, six roads, multi countries and multi ports". The infrastructure interconnection under the framework of the "belt and road" initiative is based on "six corridors, six roads, multi countries and multi ports", and a number of landmark construction projects represented by China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway, Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway, Gwadar Port and Hambantota port have made important progress.
The role of the Belt and Road Initiative in promoting the tourism economy
Among the 197 countries in the world, as of August 2023, my country has signed more than 200 cooperation documents on the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative with 152 countries and 32 international organizations. The number of countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative accounts for 77% of the number of countries in the world, the area of the countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative accounts for 65% of the total area of the 197 countries, and the population of the countries joining the Belt and Road Initiative accounts for 65% of the total population of the world.[5]
The Belt and Road Initiative advocates the concept of open, integrated, mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation. More countries have realized the importance of jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative, actively sought to join the Belt and Road Initiative circle of friends, and strived to take advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative tourism cooperation. The sense of community of shared destiny of "joint consultation, joint construction and shared benefits" in the tourism field has gradually become a trend.
The tourism exchanges and cooperation of the Belt and Road Initiative are two-way interactive and mutually beneficial. Countries along the route are promoting the in-depth integration and development of culture and tourism, actively practicing the integration of "tourism +" industries, and driving the development of the national economy. Whether it is Kazakhstan's Bright Road New Economic Policy, Kyrgyzstan's national strategy before 2040, Tajikistan's national development strategy before 2030, Uzbekistan's national strategy before 2026, or Turkmenistan's "Revival of the Silk Road" strategy, they all strive to strengthen their connection with the value chain of the Belt and Road Initiative, and thus gain more new opportunities and new momentum.
Status Analysis
With the in-depth development of economic globalization and regional integration, tourism has become an important industry to promote the sustainable and stable development of the world economy. Tourism is a comprehensive industry with strong correlation and obvious pulling effect on economic growth. More and more countries have begun to pay attention to tourism and increase investment, which has risen to the national strategic position as an important platform to participate in international competition. Uzbekistan is located in the center of Central Asia, with superior geographical location and rich tourism resources, and has a good foundation for the development of tourism.
Uzbekistan is a famous ancient country on the "Silk Road". Its long history and splendid culture make it known as the Pearl on the "Silk Road". People are familiar with Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Shiva, these world historical cities. In addition to the unique ancient architectural sites and historical and cultural landscapes, Uzbekistan's unique natural scenery is also desirable. There are various natural landscapes in its territory, such as deserts, mountains, valleys, etc. Uzbekistan has good conditions for developing ecotourism. In addition, the Uzi people's friendliness and enthusiasm also left a deep impression on the tourists.
New developments in Uzbekistan's tourism economy
The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2024 report released by the United Nations today pointed out that continued high interest rates, further escalation of conflicts, weak international trade, and increased climate disasters pose huge challenges to global growth.[6]
In the past few years, the global tourism industry has been hit by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Uzbekistan is no exception. For this reason, Uzbekistan has provided various types of support to tourism practitioners at the national level, including providing preferential loans and reducing taxes. With the end of the epidemic, the number of tourists traveling to Ukraine in 2023 has steadily increased, with about 7 million foreign tourists visiting, and the tourism industry has completed its planned revenue generation plan of US$2 billion, which is 3.7 times that of 2021.[7] According to data from the Statistics Office directly under the President of Uzbekistan, from January to August this year, 5.0405 million foreign citizens visited Uzbekistan, an increase of 16.7% over the same period last year. [8]
Ibrohim Barnayev, head of the Uzbekistan Tourism Committee, said that in 2023, Uzbekistan's tourism industry will exceed the pre-epidemic development level and enter a stage of rapid growth. The development of tourism shows the effectiveness of the reforms of the "New Uzbekistan". Tourism has now become a recognized economic driving force and is crucial to promoting reforms in other economic fields such as energy, transportation, finance, industry, services, trade, and medicine.
Areas that need attention in Uzbekistan's tourism industry
1. Good tourism supporting facilities
Mainly refers to tourism reception facilities (including parking lots, hotels, various types of transportation, etc.), tourism shopping facilities, entertainment facilities, medical rescue facilities, etc. Such as information services, inquiries, storage of items, post offices, express delivery, ATM and foreign exchange, telephones, free toilets, drinking water points, trash cans, smoking points and other tourism supporting facilities.
2. Lack of extensive cultural and tourism publicity
Culture is alive. With good cultural and tourism resources, there must be good publicity to let more people know about Uzbekistan. With the help of modern media platforms, Uzbek characteristic tourism can be widely promoted to let the world know about Uzbekistan. Tourists should come in and Uzbekistan should go to the world. At the same time, Uzbekistan's embassies and consulates in various countries and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism can jointly hold cultural and tourism exhibitions to tell the story of Uzbekistan to the world.
3. Comprehensive policy support
In order to promote the development of tourism, the Uzbek government has simplified the entry and exit procedures, provided visa-free policies for citizens of some countries, and provided entry solutions such as electronic visas, providing foreign tourists with a convenient entry method, but attention needs to be paid to the improvement of the self-driving entry procedures. Today, with
the widespread use of self-media, a difficult self-driving entry encounter will attract the attention of the whole world. At the same time, through policy support, reducing tourism costs, and attracting more tourists.
4. Good combination with modern technology
It is conceivable that tourists receive welcome text messages as soon as they get off the plane, and receive information such as destination weather and precautions. Scanning the QR code can understand the overview, history, culture, tourist attractions, mature tourist routes, travel methods, travel suggestions and tips of Uzbekistan, and can also use 3D information to travel in Uzbekistan. Such a modern technological atmosphere will definitely give tourists a good travel experience.
5. Talent training
Professional tourism management talents, hotel service talents, and multilingual tour guides are the main directions of talent training. Keeping pace with the world, understanding the world tourism talent training standards and programs, and actively preparing talents are the key tasks of talent training. Cultivating talents who understand Uzbek culture and tourism and the humanities of other countries in the world is a long-term goal of talent cultivation. Conclusion and Suggestions
Tourism is a bridge for spreading civilization, exchanging culture, and enhancing friendship.The comprehensive driving effect of tourism determines that it can play a unique role in catalyzing, strengthening and optimizing the value connection of related industries and markets, and will continue to deepen the integration and development with the fields of health, green, digital and innovation. The joint construction of the "Belt and Road" has tightened the industrial and market cooperation ties with relevant regions, and created new opportunities for tourism cooperation between China and Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, especially the division of labor and cooperation in subdivided fields.
To ensure the healthy development of the tourism industry, we also need to pay attention to the construction of tourism infrastructure, Introducing the Uzbekistan to the world, policy support, application of modern intelligent facilities, and training of tourism management talents, so as to provide good services for tourists to Uzbekistan and let tourists see the modern, advanced, beautiful and friendly new Uzbekistan to promote the vigorous development of the tourism economy.
REFERENCES
1. Abbos Boboxonov (Uz), translated by Zhou Yanli. Effective connection between Uzbekistan's economic development and the "Belt and Road" [J]. Eurasian Economy, 2019, No. 2: 1-9.
2. E.T. Aripov (Uz), translated by Gao Xiaohui. "Belt and Road": New Opportunities for Uzbekistan [J]. Eurasian Economy, 2019, No. 5: 75-80.
3. Song Zhiqin. Analysis of the Development of Uzbekistan's Tourism Industry [J]. SIBERIAN STUDIES, Dec. 2019 Vol. 46 No. 6: 72-76.
4. Hu Biliang. The Fifth Anniversary of the "Belt and Road": Practice and Thinking [J]. Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2018, 33(9): 954-961.
5. my country has signed cooperation documents on j ointly building the Belt and Road Initiative with 152 countries and 32 international organizations. Xinhua News Agency, https://www.gov.cn/lianbo/bumen/202308/content_6899977.htm
6. Economic development. United Nations News,https://news.un.org/zh/story/2024/01/1125512
7. Tourism has become a new driving force for Uzbekistan's development. Uzbekistan New 0bservation,http://www.siluxgc.com/static/content/UZ/2024-01-18A97632929032863744.html
8. How many Chinese tourists have traveled to Uzbekistan in the first eight months of this year? Uzbekistan New Observation, http://www.siluxgc.com/static/content/public/BeltRoad/2024-10-03A291508011672567808.html
