On February 21, 2019, the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Belgium Dilyor Khakimov met with the Chief Executive Officer of the European Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Bars and Cafes (HOTREC) Christian de Barrin.

HOTREC presently has 44 member associations from 30 European countries, and is the voice of the hospitality industry in Europe. Georgia, Turkey and a number of other non-European countries are among the observer countries.

As it was emphasized at the meeting, hospitality is the basis for development of European tourism. The industry provides 11.9 million jobs in the EU.

At the meeting, the parties highly appreciated the reforms carried out in tourism industry of Uzbekistan over the past two years, which have become the most impressive trend of the global tourism industry. While global tourism is growing at 7%, in Europe – by 8%, Uzbekistan shows a doubling of its tourist flow. In this regard, the interest was reaffirmed in the early establishment of cooperation and partnership in development of sustainable tourism, as well as further implementation of innovations and adaptation of travel services of Uzbekistan.

This requires major quality investments that will be implemented on the basis of multilateral approach, partly funded by industry partners from EU countries. It also attracts collaboration and research on big data for better management of tourist flows, artificial intelligence and blockchains. Within the framework of the conversation, a conference call was organized with the leadership of the Association of Cooks of Uzbekistan in the course of which a plan was developed for the upcoming contacts.

Following the negotiations, the European side invited Uzbekistan to become a member of HOTREC. Necessary procedures will be initiated soon for this purpose. In addition, the Association is invited to the International Exhibition FoodWeek & Horeca Uzbekistan 2019.