Developing sustainable tourism in Uzbekistan through culturalisation strategies

Abstract

Tourism plays an essential role in economic development and regional growth across the globe. Uzbekistan is endowed with substantial potential for developing tourism because of its rich culture and history and its diverse traditions. It is nevertheless crucial to ensure sustainable tourism development, which presupposes measures that promote economic progress in harmony with environmental safety, cultural preservation and societal welfare. This paper examines the tourism sector of Uzbekistan through a culturalisation strategy and identifies the key factors determining sustainable tourism development. It uses the Global RPM approach together with the SANEL HERMES model to define the main problems of the tourism industry. Information on the current state of tourism in Uzbekistan was obtained through a literature review, interviews with tourism experts and a survey of tourists, and the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix was applied to rank strategies for promoting tourism development. The results show that Uzbekistan possesses numerous tourism advantages relating to its culture and cuisine, but that deficient tourism infrastructure, limited digitalisation, low sustainability and ineffective tourism management remain to be overcome.