The Embassy of Uzbekistan recently organised an event for Delhi travel trade to create awareness about Uzbekistan’s varied tourism products and offerings. The event was organised by Eximius Business, an India based Travel Company having overseas offices in Malta, China and Hong Kong.
Speaking on the occasion, Avaz D. Khodjiev, Counselor (Trade & Economic), Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, informed that Uzbekistan and India are close friends since a long time. “Now a day, we see an increasing interest among Indians to visit Uzbekistan. This is evident from the fact that Indian arrivals grew from 3,000 in 2009 to 30,000 in 2015. We are expecting to welcome 40,000 Indians in 2016. The problem is that there is an acute lack of awareness about Uzbek tourism products in India and this event aims to address this issue,” he added.
Another challenge that he pointed out was the limited air connectivity between India and Uzbekistan. “Uzbek Air currently has a daily flight from Delhi to Tashkent. We are also working at connecting Mumbai to Tashkent with a daily flight. Talks are on between two governments and we have a positive indication from the Ministry of External Affairs in India. If this happens, the number of Indian arrivals will double as Mumbai offers huge potential for outbound travel,” he revealed.
To strengthen ties between India and Uzbek travel trade fraternity, the embassy is planning to bring an Uzbek tourism delegation to India in August who interact with their Indian counterparts and enter into some sort of tie ups to drive two-way traffic. “We have a tourism fair in October in Tashkent and we want more Indian companies to participate in that fair,” he added. Raman Kapoor, Vice President – Business Initiatives, Eximius Business said that there has been a double-digit growth in Indian arrivals to Uzbekistan. “We are in talks to organise such tourism workshops in other Indian cities such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, etc. to create more awareness about Uzbek’s tourism products in India. We will do everything from visa processing to hotels and tickets for the travel agents or direct client,” he said.
