Uzbek tourists prefer Turkey in new season

TASHKENT - Anatolia News Agency

Cihan Varlık says there is a significant increase in the number of Uzbek tourists.

Many Uzbek tourists, who previously preferred to travel to eastern and southeastern Asian countries, have this year, chosen Turkey as their preferred tourist destination. The streets of Uzbekistan’s capital city Tashkent are decorated with advertisements promoting Turkey, and Uzbek tourism companies have accelerated their work due to a major interest in Turkey from Uzbek tourists. Companies have begun to organize additional flights to the southern province of Antalya as the previous 14 flights a week between Turkey and Uzbekistan were not sufficient.

There has been a significant increase in the number of guides who want to go to Turkey from Uzbekistan, Turkey’s Culture and Promotion Adviser in Tashkent Cihan Varlık said, as reported by Anatolia news agency. As a result of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism increasing collaborations with Uzbek travel agencies interest in Turkey increased with the Uzbek people and more Uzbek tourists now travel to Turkey.

According to Varlık, the number of Uzbek tourists travelling to Turkey was 68.124 in 2010, it increased 25 percent to 85.011 in 2011. He said that 21,970 Uzbeks travelled to Turkey last year during the first four months. That number increased by 25 percent and reached 26,568 this year in the same period.
Antalya, Bodrum and Istanbul are the most frequent places in Turkey for Uzbek guides, said Varlık.

Culture Ministry foreign expenditures The Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a statement May 28 to correct a misunderstanding reported by some news media organizations about the ministry’s foreign expenditures. The ministry said media reports provided the wrong figures and information. “It is claimed in the news that the ministry was generous [in its] promotions in Israel, but stingy for promotions in Islamic countries,” the statement said.

“It was allocated a budget of $500,000 for Iran but only $200,000 was spent because of the fact that the Iranian government does not give permission for country promotions. In 2011, nearly 9 million Turkish Liras was spent for promotions in Dubai, Tehran, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur, Damascus and Riyadh, and almost all of the budget was spent,” the statement said.

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