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48
Kadamboyev B. student
Urgench State University
POTENTIALS AND PROSPECTS OF MICE TOURISM IN
UZBEKISTAN
Annotation: This article examines the significance of MICE tourism. The major focus of the paper is improving the role of MICE tourism in Uzbekistan. As well as, the article briefly discusses the opportunities of MICE tourism in Uzbekistan and to solve problems in it.
Keywords - Tourism industry, MICE tourism, Potential Development, Infrastucture Facilities, Convention Centers.
Tourism is the activities of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. There are various types of tourism industries under the umbrella of tourism and tourism can be categorized as part of business tourism by MICE [1].
According to statistics by International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) ICCA captured a record number of 12,558 rotating international association meetings taking place in 2017, with 346 additional meetings taking place compared to 2016. This is the highest annual figure that ICCA has ever recorded in its yearly analysis of the immediate past year's meetings data [7]. The World Tourism Council (WTC) reported that approximately 60% of tourism industry is taken up by business tourism, while business tourists themselves comprise only 25% of the total international tourist flows which indicates high solvency of this segment. This situation makes MICE tourism market more attractive. The global MICE industry was valued at $752 billion in 2016, and is projected to reach $1,245 billion in 2023.
It should be noted that the creation of promising forms of tourism development in our country is one of the priorities of state policy. In order to increase the flow of domestic and foreign tourists, ministries and departments regularly cultural and entertainment, sports, exhibitions, and other international events are being organized. An analysis of the dynamics of the number of foreign citizens visiting Uzbekistan showed that over the past two years there has been an increase in the flow of foreign persons by 2.6 times. So, in 2017 their number was 2.8 million people, and in 2019 it reached 6.3 million people [8].
The goal of the largest part of foreign citizens who entered Uzbekistan is to visit relatives (73.2 %). According to statistics, 0.8% of tourists visiting Uzbekistan for MICE purposes in 2019 [8]. However, the big cities of Uzbekistan that Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and Navoi could be
center of MICE tourism. There are many opportunities for developing MICE tourism in these regions [4].
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the potential of the development of MICE tourism in Uzbekistan and its prospects of successful development in Uzbekistan. The research objectives are as follows:
• study the potential and prospects of MICE tourism in Uzbekistan;
• making a suggestion development and promotion guidelines for MICE tourism in Uzbekistan.
Our research findings indicate that the most powerful method is that according to the experiences of leading countries, organizing Convention Bureau CB/ Convention and Visitors Bureau CVB. The Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is a non-profit organization providing information, resources and support to the hospitality and tourism sector [2].
By researching the current situation of MICE tourism in Uzbekistan, we found out some main drawbacks like poor infrastructure facilities: transportation, road conditions, accommodation, the lack of active cooperation of companies and other organizations in Uzbekistan with the International Congress and Convention Association in order to develop and promote MICE tourism, the lack of marketing research to develop MICE tourism, lack of FDI (Foreign Direct Investments) and so on.
And also some measures could be taken to mitigate the problems. For example, first of all, organizing Convention Bureau (CB)/ Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and the long-term economic development plan on MICE tourism should be adopted. Additionally, creating the MICE tourism brand of Uzbekistan and building Convention Centers in Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, and other tourism centers of Uzbekistan as well as conducting marketing research regularly to develop MICE tourism.
World practice of tourism development shows that in order to turn this industry into a high-income sector, it is necessary to unite and strengthen the efforts of all participants in the public and private sectors. In this, the role of government is to ensure the coordination and planning of development policies in the field of tourism at the international, governmental and private sector levels.
References:
1. The business of tourism 10th edition J Christopher Holloway Claire Humphreys Pearson Education Limited 2012, 2016 (print and electronic).
2. "Introduction to MICE Industry". Property and copyrighted by Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau (Public Organization) 2016.
3. Development Opportunities of MICE Tourism in Developing Countries: Case of Georgia 2017.
4. The prospects of using meetings, incentive travels, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) services in the tourism market of Uzbekistan (2019) https:// uzjournals. edu.uz/capmse/ vol4/iss2/133/
5. www.visitbritain.org/business-visits-events
6. www.uzbektourism.uz
7. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316600594
8. Деловой туризм: проблемы, тенденции, перспективы [Электронный ресурс]: Режим доступа: http://moluch.ru/archive/88/17089/
