According to the Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Research 2026 report published by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Central Asia was the world’s fastest-growing tourism region in 2025.
WTTC conducts its annual research by dividing the world into 13 major regions. Based on the 2025 results, Central Asia ranked first globally across several key tourism performance indicators. Uzbekistan emerged as the regional leader, recording the strongest performance among the Central Asian countries across all of these indicators.
According to the report, the total contribution of travel and tourism to Central Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 17.7% in 2025, while the sector’s direct contribution to GDP grew by 19.6%. Visitor exports reached $9.9 billion, representing a 26.4% increase compared to the previous year. Central Asia ranked first in the world in terms of growth in visitor exports. Nearly half of the region’s total visitor exports came from Uzbekistan, which generated $4.8 billion in tourism exports in 2025. According to WTTC data for 2025, Uzbekistan was the most popular travel destination for residents of Central Asia.
Report notes that Uzbekistan’s leading position is driven by its rich historical and cultural heritage and its strong appeal to travellers from across the region. “Overall, these figures confirm the regional nature of tourism: residents of Central Asia travel within their own region more frequently than anywhere else”, the report states.
In addition, WTTC highlights the significant potential for creating a unified tourism space across Central Asia. According to the organization’s experts, simplifying border procedures, expanding air connectivity and transport infrastructure, developing joint tourism routes, and promoting Central Asia as a single tourism destination will help attract more international visitors from other regions of the world.
According to the report, 64.3% of all tourism spending in Central Asia in 2025 came from international visitors, while 35.7% was generated by domestic tourism within the region. Among international visitor spending, 84.5% was related to leisure travel and 15.5% to business travel.
WTTC forecasts that by 2036, the total contribution of the travel and tourism sector to Central Asia’s economy will reach $29.7 billion.
A total of 7,749,308 foreign nationals visited Uzbekistan for tourism purposes in January–July 2026. Tourist flow increased by 1.4 million people, or 22.6 percent, compared with the same period last year. The largest number of tourists arrived from neighbouring countries. In particular, 2,177,108 visitors came from the Kyrgyz Republic, 1,855,562 from Kazakhstan, and 1,728,978 from Tajikistan.
They were followed by Russia with 710,824 visitors, Afghanistan – 281,200, China – 269,735, Turkmenistan – 192,830, Türkiye – 111,908, India – 32,462, and the Republic of Korea – 26,512. Thus, around 1.18 million foreign tourists visited Uzbekistan in July alone. At the same time, the growth in tourist flows has continued throughout the year.
It should be recalled that more than 6.5 million foreign nationals visited Uzbekistan in the first half of 2026, which was nearly 25 percent higher than the figure recorded during the same period last year. The sustained positive dynamics demonstrate the continued expansion of tourist flows to Uzbekistan and the strengthening of the country’s position as one of the region’s sought-after tourist destinations.
Source: https://daryo.uz/