Thirteen streets in Samarkand to be turned into pedestrian zones

Thirteen streets in Samarkand’s historic center are planned to be turned into pedestrian zones, with new tourism and service facilities to be built there. This was announced during a meeting chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on June 10 on measures to comprehensively develop the territories of Samarkand region and improve living standards in remote and outlying districts.

The meeting paid special attention to further expanding the tourism potential of Samarkand region. Since the beginning of this year, the number of foreign tourists visiting the country has increased by 27.3% to 5.4 million. Uzbekistan has set an ambitious target of increasing the number of foreign tourists to 20 million and tourism exports to $10 billion. To achieve this, it was emphasized that regions need to increase the number of new routes and service facilities that encourage tourists to stay longer.

For this purpose, the initiative to turn 13 streets in Samarkand’s historic center into pedestrian zones and build new tourism and service facilities was supported.

In addition, a proposal was made to expand the territory of the Ohalik-Oqboyro-Mironqul tourist and recreational zone. The issue of improving the area around the Shaar collector canal, which flows opposite the Imam Maturidi memorial complex, was also considered.

As a result of these measures, the task was set to increase the number of hotels in Samarkand city, Nurobod district and Samarkand district to 850, the room capacity to 20,000 places, and the volume of tourism services to $750 million.

Earlier, as part of his visit to Samarkand region, Shavkat Mirziyoyev attended a ceremony dedicated to launching major projects and starting their construction, giving the start to projects worth $2.4 billion.