President Shavkat Mirziyoyev chaired a government meeting Wednesday dedicated to boosting the tourism potential of the provinces and expediting the implementation of foreign-invested projects.

In recent years, the export of tourism services in Uzbekistan increased by 1.6 times reaching $3.5 billion, with over 2,000 new businesses started. Last year, the flow of foreign tourists exceeded 10 million people for the first time.

It is underscored that the tourism and service infrastructure is rapidly developing in the provinces of the country.

In particular, over the past 8 years, local and foreign investors have invested $6.5 billion, resulting in the creation of 130 thousand hotel rooms. This year, their number will increase by another 30 thousand.

A new international-level ski area is being created at the top of Oltin Bel in Parkent, which is four times larger in area than Amirsoy ski resort in Bostanlyk district.

"The management of the French Courchevel ski resort is showing great interest in creating European-level tourist facilities in the mountainous provinces of Uzbekistan. We will not stop there. Our rich historical and cultural heritage, beautiful and unique nature allow us to increase the flow of tourists by 2-3 times," the president said.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev emphasized that a strategy was being developed to increase the share of tourism in the economy to 7% and exports to $10 billion by 2040.

According to him, many governors and mayors still have not realized how important tourism is.

Despite the fact that the tourist season began more than a month ago, the place with capsule houses was opened only in Kitab, while the mayors of the remaining 35 districts and cities "continue to do nothing."

At the meeting, he decided to allocate up to 10 million soums in subsidies from the Tourism Development Fund for the construction and equipment of capsule houses.

Reportedly, tourists are dissatisfied with the condition of the main and internal roads passing through Khorezm, Bukhara, Kashkadarya and Surkhandarya.

The responsible departments have been instructed to carry out calculations and begin repairing the roads included in the so-called "tourist ring".

Shavkat Mirziyoyev underscored that the initiative to create tourist villages, launched three years ago, is yielding positive results.

While, he underscored that in the Tashkent province, the initiative to create a tourist village based on the Korean experience remained only on paper, and in the Kashkadarya and Jizzakh provinces, only one such village has opened. In the Navoi and Syrdarya provinces, there are no handicraft centers, and in the Jizzakh and Fergana provinces, there are no gastronomic tourism centers.

He also added that the volume of tourism exports in Jizzakh and Surkhandarya provinces does not reach 65 million dollars, and in Syrdarya it does not exceed 30 million.

The president criticized the situation in which not a single border checkpoint has created a corner representing the tourism potential of Uzbekistan.

“Hiking tourism (trekking) in mountainous areas is becoming popular among the population. However, travel agencies spend 2-3 months obtaining permits for such routes,” the President said.

The responsible departments have been instructed to implement a system for issuing such permits through the Unified Interactive Portal within 10 days.