Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Today, on 15 April, the grand opening of the exhibition in the B2B Tashkent Travel Mart format took place at the capital's Hyatt Regency Tashkent Hotel.

The event was opened by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan Aziz Abdukhakimov. In his welcoming speech, he noted the significance of the event held in the new format for Uzbekistan.

 “We see that tourism in Uzbekistan is actively developing. If in 2017 we had 2.7 million tourists, then last year this figure rose to 5.4 million. I note that in the first quarter of this year alone, 1 million visitors visited the country. Today, when many areas of tourism are developing in the country, I think that you can find new partners here, develop your business in Uzbekistan, and the government, in turn, is ready to support all your initiatives. ”

The opening ceremony of the event was also attended by Abdulaziz Akkulov, acting chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development; Gulchehra Israilova, Chairman of the Association of Private Tourism Organizations of Uzbekistan (APTO); representatives of international and domestic tourism organizations, as well as the media.

Tashkent Travel Mart is a modern platform for establishing new relations and business agreements between tourist organizations of various countries. The event was held for the first time, but it has already aroused great interest among representatives of about a hundred organizations focusing their activities in the field of tourism. Tourist organizations from Azerbaijan, Greece, Georgia, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea and other countries took an active part in the exhibition.

The exhibition is organized by the Association of Private Tourism Organizations of Uzbekistan (APTA) with the support of the State Tourism Development Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan Airways.