The Tourism Development in Uzbekistan: An Assessment

Every field of social, political, and financial activity is up to contribute to the economy of a particular country, and one of them is tourism industry. The tourism industry being a relevant dimension in the Abstract: This study endeavored to assess the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan, particularly in the 3 cities of Samarkand, Khiva and Bukhara. Specifically, this investigation determined the demographic profile of the respondents; determined the level of perceptions among respondents on their assessment regarding the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan; and determined whether a relationship existed between the demographic profile of the respondents and their level of perception on the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan. This study is descriptive and correlational, which utilized survey questionnaire to derive data from the actual respondents. The researcher used convenience sampling in view of the very huge population. The respondents were drawn through quota sampling, which targeted a total of 100 respondents: 34 from Samarkand City; 33 from Bukhara City;and 33 from Khiva City. For the actual respondents, only 97 however participated in this study. The researcher had been constrained by the lack of time to look for other 2 respondents from Samarkand City, and another 1 from Khiva City, but Bukhara City had 100 percent retrieval rate, which means, the number of 33 cooperated in the survey. The data gathered with respect to the demographic profile of the respondents have been treated through the use of simple frequency counts and percentages. While the assessment on the level of perception on the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan, weighted mean had been used. In terms of finding out the relation amidst the demographic profile of the respondents and the level of perception on the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan, SPSS software had been used. The findings in terms of the respondents` demographic profile ,majority of them belonged to 45 to 64 age bracket, with 15 years old as the youngest and 66 years old as the oldest. Majority of the respondents are males, mostly Russians, Indians and Japanese. Most of the respondents are college graduates, with annual income ranging from US$10,000 to 19,000; and preferred to stay for one week whenever they visit Uzbekistan for leisure purposes. Most of the respondents are first timers in Uzbekistan, and they were motivated to visit the country in view of the many tour activities being offered. The respondents claimed that the source of information that prompted them to visit Uzbekistan came from the travel agencies and tour operators. As regards assessment made by the respondents on the level of perception on the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan, the result revealed as generally good (grand mean of 3.59). However, the assessment further pointed out that the kind of transportation facilities being provided to the tourists visiting Uzbekistan is a concern that the government of Uzbekistan should give relevant focus. Night life as most of activities that tourists would want to have during their visit, is also another concern that need to be addressed to. In finding out whether a compelling relation existed amidst the demographic profile of the respondents and their level of perception on the quality of tourism development in Uzbekistan, with the significance level of 0.05, the chi square test disclosed that the age, gender, nationality, staying period, visiting purpose, frequency of visit, source of information, motivation are significantly related, while education, income and price are not.

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