Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Aviasales.uz experts conducted a study on how much the travel market in Uzbekistan suffered. The total demand for air tickets for 2020 decreased threefold compared to the same period of last year.

In September, the demand for air tickets recovered by 68% compared to September 2019, however, the volume of purchases is only 7% of the volume of the previous year. This is due to insufficient flight frequency, increased ticket prices and popular destinations that are still closed.

“This is a threatening figure for both local air carriers and the entire tourism sector: hotels, hotels, tour operators,” commented Ruslan Baiganurov, a marketing specialist for Aviasales.uz.

While in neighboring countries the demand for domestic flights is rapidly recovering, in Uzbekistan it has significantly decreased compared to last year. Despite the fact that Uzbeks can fly within the country, only one third of domestic flights have recovered.

Interest in Uzbekistan among foreign travelers has halved. The top 5 countries from which they are looking for flights to Uzbekistan include Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, South Korea and Belarus. 85% of searches for tickets to Uzbekistan are in Russia.

“It is not yet clear when the travel industry will be able to return to the indicators that were before the quarantine, it directly depends on how the situation with the coronavirus will develop further. At the moment, the demand for air tickets significantly exceeds the supply: people need to fly for work, many are still planning a vacation. But closed borders do not allow either people to realize their plans, or tourism to start recovering,” says Ruslan Baiganurov.

In the top 3 popular countries where Uzbeks would like to fly from October to December are Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. The total share of searches in Russia is over 60%. The top 3 directions of cities departing from Tashkent have not changed during the quarantine period, this is traditionally Moscow, St. Petersburg and Istanbul.