Uzbekistan Presents New Tourism Investment Opportunities at TIIF-2026

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — A panel session titled "Investments in the Tourism Sector," dedicated to presenting Uzbekistan's potential for foreign capital, was held at the Tashkent International Investment Forum.

The discussion, moderated by Jordi Greig, Editor-in-Chief of The Independent, was attended by Abdulaziz Akkulov, Chairman of the Tourism Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as well as top managers and representatives from Boeing, the Architectural and Urban Planning Portal, the American-Uzbek Chamber of Commerce, GEODATA PLUS, Governful, and the China Chamber of Tourism under the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

The session participants considered a strategic shift from isolated local initiatives to large-scale, systemic investment projects capable of stimulating the comprehensive development of the regions. Hotel development, the creation of large tourist complexes, and transport and logistics infrastructure were named as the most promising areas from the perspective of a fast return on investment.

Chairman of the Tourism Committee Abdulaziz Akkulov emphasized that the state guarantees comprehensive support to investors, including tax preferences, subsidies, soft loans, and transparent mechanisms for public-private partnerships.

According to the approved Tourism Development Strategy until 2030, the key target benchmarks for the industry are increasing the annual tourist flow to 20 million people and growing the export of profile services to a level of over 6 billion US dollars. It is planned to increase the average length of stay for travelers in the country to 7–8 days, and raise the average check of a single foreign guest from the current $415 to 1,000 US dollars.

Achieving these indicators is being ensured by expanding the geography of flights, diversifying the hotel network, and developing niche premium segments, such as MICE, ecological, gastronomic, pilgrimage, film tourism, and luxury tourism.

The current dynamics confirm the high efficiency of the ongoing reforms and the policy of openness, which includes visa-free entry for citizens of 95 states. In the first five months of 2026, Uzbekistan welcomed more than 5.3 million foreign citizens, demonstrating a 37% growth compared to the same period last year.

According to official data from the UN Tourism organization, the republic has established itself among the top five countries in the world with the highest growth rates of tourist flows.

To date, the country's infrastructural base includes more than 7,000 accommodation facilities, having increased nearly ninefold over recent years, and on the national scale, this infrastructure continues to rapidly expand.