Targets set for the year of 2011-12 were reviewed and it was decided that tourism should be used for promotion of products like handicrafts to increase exports.

Uzbektourism National Company was set up on July 27, 1992. The Company operates in interaction with other state bodies, local authorities, social organizations and other entities.

According to the Uzbektourism, domestic tourism base will be expanded by offering regional packages and programs during 2012-2013 as implementation of these programs will contribute creation of favourable conditions for travellers and enhance the interest of Uzbek people in domestic tourism. Uzbektourism maintained that the work on developing a set of measures for the development of tourism in Uzbekistan for the period 2012-2016 is getting carried out. It was also decided that tourist traffic signs in English, German and other foreign languages will be installed in airports, railway stations, tourist cities and highways of the republic.

Uzbektourism will also work on building the capacity of workforce of tourism industry workforce by offering training and seminars on the theme Hospitality and Service. This significant action will be organized and coordinated by the Republican Research Training Consulting Centre of the NC Uzbektourism.

It may be mentioned that Uzbekistan is working very aggressively for the development of tourism in 2011-2012, the foreign representative offices of the Republic of Uzbekistan organized more than 400 events on the presentation of tourist potential of the country abroad that contributed to attracting more visitors to the country.

Uzbektourism in a glance

The main tasks of the Uzbektourism are the following:

• ensuring the implementation of the uniform tourism-related state policy, and promoting development of the tourist services infrastructure;
• implementing the state tourism development programs and tourists protection and security programs, and coordinating tourist activities at inter-sectoral and inter-regional levels;
• certification of tourist services;
• implementing tourism-related advertisement and information policy;
• attracting foreign loans and investments to the tourism industry, and implementing long-term programs of cooperation with countries and their companies;
• carrying out a range of measures to provide training, retraining and further training of the personnel for the tourism industry, and promoting development of tourism science.

In accordance with the tasks assigned to the Company, it performs the following functions:

• working out the strategies for the development of the tourism industry in the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• participating in drafting laws and regulations concerning tourism;
• licensing tourist business activities;
• certifying tourist services in accordance with the law On Tourism;
• working out proposals to improve the system of statistical accounting in the tourism industry;
• organizing market research in the tourism industry;
• engaging in analytical activities, determining the trends in the development of the tourism industry in the country and making forecasts in this regard;
• working out proposals for special-purpose, industry-specific and regional tourism development programs and coordinating the efforts to implement them;
• engaging in advertisement and information activities to ensure the sale of the tourist services;
• cooperating with foreign national tourism authorities and their representative offices in the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• interacting with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other international tourism organizations, representing the country’s interests in them; 
• participating in the efforts to attract investments into the tourism industry;
• working out investment projects for developing tourist infrastructure;
• analyzing how well the interests of the Republic of Uzbekistan are observed in the overseas markets and working out proposals for elimination of unfavourable occurrences in tourism on the basis of it;
• implementing international tourism personnel training programs.