Is a country with potential for an expanded

Uzbekistan is a country with potential for an expanded tourism industry. Many of its Central Asian cities were main points of trade on the Silk Road, linking Eastern and Western civilizations. Today the museums of Uzbekistan store over two million artifacts, evidence of the unique historical, cultural and spiritual life of the Central Asian peoples that have lived in the region. Uzbekistan attracts tourists with its historical, archeological, architectural and natural treasures.

According to the Statistical Internet Survey, carried out in May 7-August 27, 2008, the largest proportion of those surveyed (39%) visit the country because of their interest in the architectural and historical sites of Uzbekistan. The next-largest group (24%) visit Uzbekistan to observe its culture, way of life and customs.

Cultural Tourism is the only major product Uzbekistan is providing to visitors since its independence. Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva are hot spots of tourism.

Tourist activities in Uzbekistan range from outdoor activities, such as rock-climbing, to exploration of its rich archeological and religious history.

In 2005, 240,000 tourists from 117 countries visited Uzbekistan. The industry earned US$30 million (90.9% of forecast). Overall, the tourism sector served 621,700 people and rendered services for 40.6 billion soums (73.1% of forecast). The industry earned 598.4 million soums. Each autumn, the Uzbek travel industry holds an International Tourism Fair.

Uzbekistan is located on the Great Silk Road and many neighboring countries (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan) promote their countries based on their location along the Great Silk Road.

The World Tourism Organization's Silk Road Office was opened in 2004 in Samarkand. This office was commissioned to coordinate the efforts of international organisations and national tourism offices of countries located on the Silk Road. Uzbekistan is also a member of The Region Initiative (TRI), a tri-regional umbrella of tourism related organisations. TRI functions as a link between three regions----South Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe which is also by Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tajikistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Ukraine.

Ancient cities of Uzbekistan - Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List delight tourists with historical architectural monuments that inhaled spirit of the Great Silk Road caravans. Though sights of Uzbekistan are not only about monumental madrasas and minarets, mausoleums of rulers and spiritual leaders.

Nature of Uzbekistan, its traditions, culture, cuisine and handicrafts are amazingly diverse.

National crafts of Uzbekistan deserve a separate story: silk fabrics and carpets, bright ceramics and oriental knives, wood carving and metal coinage, lacquered miniatures and golden embroidery, famous suzanes and old styles of embroidery ‘basma’ and ‘iroqi’, paper production according to an ancient technology and construction of seismic-stable houses from clay.

Uzbek cuisine that at the behast of destiny turned out to be at the crossroads of the culinary preferences of civilizations and absorbed the best of centuries in itself. Talk about the sights of Uzbekistan is impossible without touching gastronomic attractions. Plov (also known as polo, pollo, pilav, pilau, plov, pulao, polu and palaw), bread, sweets - the list is endless. Besides, there is a specialization in dishes: there are centres of plov, or lagman (homemade noodle soup with seasonal vegetable topping) places, shashlik (local barbeque) spots and samsa (also known as samosa) stalls. Each city has many chayhanas (tea-houses), every chayhana has quails singing in it, canals with honey melons cooling in them, and gardens are there with ripe peaches, pomegranate and grapes.

Natural landmarks of Uzbekistan are so that in winter one can do mountains sports; in summer eco tours on camels in the desert and swim in a mountain lake; and in autumn practice some paragliding in Chimgan mountains or have a walk on the shrinking Aral sea bed in Karakalpakstan.

You should definitely find some time to visit museums: Savitsky Museum in Nukus, Local History Museum in Kokand, “Afrosiyab” Museum in Samarkand, House-Museum of Fayzula Khodjaev in Bukhara and Locomotive Museum in Tashkent. There are dozens of them - choose to your interests.

The culture of Uzbekistan has a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures, with the Uzbeks being the majority group. In 1995, about 71% of Uzbekistan's population was Uzbek. The chief minority groups were Russians (8.4%), Tajiks (officially 5%, but believed to be much higher), Kazaks (4.1%), Tatars (2.4%), and Karakalpaks (2.1%), and other minority groups include Armenians and Koryo-saram. It is said however that the number of non-indigenous people living in Uzbekistan is decreasing as Russians and other minority groups slowly leave and Uzbeks return from other parts of the former Soviet Union.

Uzbeks celebrate the New Year in a celebration called Yangi Yil. They decorate a Christmas tree, They celebrate Christmas, and give each other gifts. They sing and listen to traditional Uzbek music while having dinner, and after dinner, a man dressed as Santa and Father Time arrive and continue the celebration. At midnight, they sing the Uzbek National Anthem to welcome a new year, and continue celebrating.[1] Moreover, the most popular holiday for Uzbeks is Nowruz, and it is deemed to be the most historical one. Colourful traditional costumes and variety of meals on the laid table take the main pattern of the holiday. However, the main course of the holiday is Sumalak, which should be boiled the whole night.

Culture. Uzbekistan has one of the brightest and original cultures of the Orient. It is inimitable national music, dances and painting, unique national kitchen and clothes. The Uzbek national music is characterized as variety of subjects and genres. The songs and tool plays according to their functions and forms of usage can be divided into two groups: performed in the certain time and under the certain circumstances and performed at any time. The songs connected with customs and traditions, labor processes, various ceremonies, dramatized entertainment representations and games belong to the first group.

The Uzbek people is well-known for its songs. "Qoshiq" - household song with a small diapason melody, covering one or two rows of the poetic text. The dancing character of a melody of this genre provides their performance in support of comic dances. "Lapar" is a dialogue-song. In some areas the term - lapar is applied to wedding songs "Ulan" (which is performed as a dialogue of man and women). Genre "yalla" includes two kinds of songs: a melody of a narrow range, and solo simultaneously with dance. National and professional poems of the poets of East are used as the texts for the songs. The special place in the Uzbek musical heritage occupies "dastans" (epic legends with lyric-heroic content). Also "Maqoms"- are the basic classical fund of professional music of oral tradition.

The dances of Uzbeks distinguish softness, smoothness and expressiveness of movements, easy sliding step, and original movements on a place and on a circle.

The development of national painting began many centuries ago. At XVI-XVII centuries art of the manuscript and binding in Bukhara and some other urban centers has achieved significant success. The decorating of manuscript included refined calligraphy, performance by water paints and thin ornaments on fields. In Samarkand and especially in Bukhara the Central Asian school of a miniature has achieved a great success and were developed many different style directions. One of them, for example is connected with traditions of Behzod, which characterized with its gentle style of writing the letter and architectural elements.