SHAH ALAM - Uzbekistan is targetting for 100,000 Malaysian tourists to visit this year.
Uzbek ambassador to Malaysia Ravshan Usmanov said although the number seemed ambitious, the country was working hard to promote Uzbekistan and to increase air connectivity to encourage more people to travel to the country.
"At the moment we have two direct flights a week from Kuala Lumpur to Tashkent so we would like to increase this number with the help of Malaysian airline companies," he told Sinar Daily after visiting the Karangkraf Complex, here, today.
He went on to say that tourism is one of the pillars of cooperation between the two countries, and the growth of tourists from Malaysia has been increasing over the years.
Usmanov said in 2017 there were only 1,500 Malaysian tourists who visited Uzbekistan but the numbers have been steadily rising.
"In 2018 the numbers rose to 3,000 and in 2019 right before the pandemic the number of Malaysians visiting grew substantially to 6,000 people, so now we need to get back the momentum.
"Currently there is no need for a visa and we do not require a vaccination certification either so it is quite easy to travel, all you need is to grab a ticket and fly here," he said.
Usmanov explained that currently on average 15,000 Uzbeks travel to Malaysia every year, with Langkawi as their preferred travel destination.
"We are a landlocked country, which is why our people love the sea, we don't have the sea in our country so when our people travel abroad they would like to be as close to the sea as possible," he said.
He then urged Malaysians interested in Islamic civilisation and history to consider Uzbekistan as their next holiday destination.
"Uzbekistan is known as the cradle of Islamic civilisation, why we say so is because many Islamic scholars and prominent Imams were born here such as Imam Al-Bukhari and Imam Al-Tirmidhi
"We also have a lot to offer in terms of history, architecture, and religion, we have 8,400 cultural heritage sites and four cities which are complete cities designated as Unesco world Heritage Sites which is Bukhara, Shakhrisyabz, Itchan Kala and Samarkand," he said.
Usmanov added that umrah pilgrims could also consider Uzbekistan as a pitstop destination after completing their pilgrimage to learn and get a better understanding of Islamic history.
He added that a photo exhibition on Uzbekistan and Islamic civilisation was currently ongoing from March 1 to April 27 at the Museum of Islamic Arts in Kuala Lumpur for those who were interested to know more about the country.
"For those who are interested to know more about Uzbekistan they can go to the museum and get acquainted with what we have to offer," he said.
Earlier, Usmanov paid a visit to Karangkraf Media Group advisor Datuk Hussamuddin Yaacub and toured the Karangkraf complex.
He was also given a briefing on the publishing operations of the company