About

Summary

Acorn were contracted to provide recommendations for the development of a system of tourism statistics in Uzbekistan at a national level, as well as at the regional level, in particular for the four regions that were the main focus of the study: Fergana Velley, Bukhara, Surkhandarya, and Kashkadarya, as part of a broader regional tourism master plan.

The study involved the assessment of the current system of tourism statistics at both the regional and national levels, followed by the design of a new and improved system that clearly identified the organisations responsible for the collection and processing of each identified data tracker.  It also developed a prototype online tourism database system for tracking the tourism sector in Uzbekistan.

Our Approach

The work was undertaken in two stages: consultations with organisations in Uzbekistan that are, or would be, responsible for collecting and processing tourism-related data, followed by recommendations for implementing the system and development of an online tourism database.

The analysis of the current system focussed on the measurement of inbound tourism, domestic tourism, outbound tourism, accommodation utilisation, visits to attractions, measurement of digital marketing (websites and social media), and air and rail passenger transport movements, and the development of an inventory of tourism characteristic industries (accommodation, food and beverages, transport, tour operators and travel agents, and recreation and cultural activities).

Based on this assessment, a number of processes were recommended to improve the scope and accuracy of the tourism statistics collected, to bring them in line with the concepts and classifications set out by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).  A prototype database system for the storage, processing and dissemination this data was built using Acorn’s T-Stats system.

Outcome

Recommendations were split into five key groups: those that could be applied at national level (such as the measurement of inbound tourism and transport passenger movements), and those that could be applied at each of the four regions of focus within the study (such as measuring domestic tourism, accommodation utilisation and visits to attractions).

Two major surveys, for measuring inbound tourism at international borders, and for measuring domestic and outbound tourism as a household survey, were part of these recommendations, and through a representative sample would provide significant data for measuring and tracking tourism at both the national and regional levels.

UZSTAT, the national statistical agency, would be the key stakeholder in the collection and processing of the majority of the data in the system of tourism statistics, although the Ministry of Tourism as the main user, would be a key representative within a tourism statistics committee.