The Role of the Cities of the Great Silk Road of Uzbekistan in the Tourism of Uzbekistan

Resum

The Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan are one of the most attractive destinations of the world in terms of hospitality, range of unique historical buildings, the lifestyle of locals and their traditional habits as well. The study investigated tourists’ perceived overall attractiveness of Silk Road cities and perceived importance of destination attributes to tourists that contribute to its overall attractiveness. This study attempts to evaluate destination attractiveness of Silk Road cities, namely Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva from the perspective of local and international visitors to come up with an up-to-date reflection on international tourist assessments of Uzbekistan. A descriptive analysis is used to analyze the collected data for this thesis. According to findings, destinations attractiveness for all cities are average, not any construct mean showed outstanding or unacceptable results in all studied aspects. Although the scope of this research was limited, findings are showing that the full potential of tourism in Silk Road hasn’t been used yet. Moreover, this also adds to the body of knowledge on the understanding of tourism product preference and perceptual attitudes held by tourists from specific geographical origins to the Central Asian country, specifically within Uzbekistan.