UNJournal Jon Lee | Uzbekistan and Belarus are deepening their tourism partnership at a time when Uzbekistan is recording some of the fastest international visitor growth in the world, with both countries moving beyond simple tourist exchanges toward a more structured, institutionally grounded relationship.
According to the UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer, Uzbekistan ranked among the top five countries globally for international tourism growth in the first quarter of 2026, with inbound visitor numbers rising 37 percent year-on-year against a global average of just 2 percent. The country welcomed a record 11.7 million foreign tourists in 2025, and more than 5.3 million had already visited in the first five months of 2026 alone. Officials attribute the momentum to an expanding visa-free regime, infrastructure investment, modernized tourism services, and more active international promotion.
Against this backdrop, cooperation with Belarus has taken on increasing structure and consistency.
A Framework Built Over Several Years
The foundation for the current relationship was laid during official talks between President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan and Belarusian leadership in February 2024, which produced a set of programmatic agreements on tourism cooperation. Those accords have since been followed by concrete institutional activity.
A significant early milestone was the First Tourism Forum "Belarus and Uzbekistan," held in 2024, which brought together government officials, tourism industry representatives, and educational institutions from both countries to identify new areas for joint development. The forum established a platform for professional dialogue that has continued through subsequent events.
In 2025, both countries maintained active presence at each other's trade exhibitions. Uzbekistan participated in the "OTDYKH-2025" tourism fair in Minsk and the Third Women Entrepreneurs Business Forum in Vitebsk, while Belarus was represented at the 30th Tashkent International Tourism Fair "Tourism on the Silk Road."
Media, Digital Promotion, and Business Contacts
Beyond formal intergovernmental channels, cooperation has expanded into media and digital promotion. Reciprocal press tours have brought Belarusian and Uzbek journalists and television crews to both countries in recent years, generating sustained coverage of each nation's tourism potential in domestic media. Promotional video content about Uzbekistan has also been screened on LED displays at the Galleria Minsk shopping center, broadening the country's visibility among Belarusian audiences. Contacts between tourism companies, hospitality businesses, and educational institutions have also intensified over the same period.
Visitor Numbers on the Rise
The results are increasingly visible in the statistics. More than 32,000 Belarusian citizens visited Uzbekistan in 2025. The upward trend has continued into 2026, with 14,251 Belarusian tourists arriving in the first five months of the year, compared to 12,988 during the same period in 2025.
Part of the growing interest from Belarusian travelers reflects a broader transformation in what Uzbekistan offers as a destination. The country, once associated primarily with the historic cities of the ancient Silk Road, has diversified its tourism portfolio considerably. Cultural and heritage routes are now complemented by gastronomic, ecological, pilgrimage, event, and mountain tourism — a range that enables Uzbekistan to attract new categories of visitors and encourage repeat travel.
Partnership as a Long-Term Model
Officials and industry observers on both sides describe the Uzbekistan–Belarus tourism relationship as an example of how state-level commitment, business engagement, and genuine public interest can combine to produce durable bilateral cooperation. As both countries continue to develop their tourism offerings, that partnership is expected to deepen further, contributing to economic growth and strengthening ties between the two nations' people.
