According to a recent report by the Institute of Macroeconomic and Regional Studies (IMRS), a survey was conducted on domestic tourism in Uzbekistan and satisfaction with related services. The online survey was conducted in March-April and had 1,032 respondents, with 46.7% women and 53.3% men, the IMRS press service reported.
Source: IMRS.
When asked how often they travel around the country, more than half, or 58.5% of respondents said they do it at least once a year, including 33.5% once a year, 16.6% once every three months and 8.3% once a month.
32.3% of respondents said they would like to travel and see the sights of Uzbekistan. The availability of money (24.7%) and lack of free time (27%) were identified as restraining factors.
Respondents preferred to travel primarily with family (51.5%) and friends (26%).
The most attractive types of tourism were pilgrimage tourism (53.7%), mountain-resort tourism (52.7%), cultural and educational tourism (36.4%), health tourism (35.8%) and beaches (35.4%). Among young people (under 35) there is a high interest in extreme, sports, festival and agritourism.
When travelling around the country, respondents prefer to travel independently, without resorting to tour operators. 52.6% of respondents who take domestic trips at least once a year said that they organise them on their own.
67.7% of respondents said that when choosing a destination, they rely on recommendations of friends and relatives, 50% rely on social networks and 31% use special websites.
Problems of domestic tourism
The survey assessed satisfaction with various factors when travelling around Uzbekistan (on a 5-point scale). On this basis, the experts identified three groups of problems according to their importance:
I. the most important factors: the quality of roads (this factor was mentioned by 74.8% of respondents), hotel accommodation prices (71%) and transport (69.3%), access to water supply (69.3%), quality of internet access (68.8%), transport costs (67.8%) and access to sanitary services (66.6%).
II. medium factors: availability of tourist maps and information (65.3%), access to transport (64.1%), hygiene and sanitation in public places (62.5%), access to electricity (61.5%).
III. other factors: information about attractions on the internet (60.1%), hotel services (57.7%), finding hotels (57.2%) and finding places to eat (50%).
