SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - Hours before a South Korea-Uzbekistan summit in Seoul on Monday afternoon, the Uzbek government proposed a dedicated tourism agreement between the two countries' tourism authorities, seeking to turn eight years of visa-free travel into a working commercial relationship.
Uzbekistan received about 7.75 million foreign tourists between January and July, up 22.6 percent from a year earlier, and earned roughly $3.9 billion from tourism services over the same period. South Korean travelers accounted for 26,500 of those arrivals.
Tashkent placed that figure third among its long-haul markets, behind only China and Türkiye, and said Korean arrivals had already moved past pre-pandemic levels.
An intergovernmental tourism agreement between the two countries has been in force since 2012. What Uzbekistan now wants is a narrower document signed directly between the relevant agencies on each side, paired with an action plan setting targets for the number of travelers moving in both directions.
The groundwork for that is already in place. South Koreans have been able to enter Uzbekistan without a visa for stays of up to 30 days since February 2018, and the two capitals are linked by direct flights, which together strip out most of the friction from a trip that would otherwise require planning months ahead.
Access alone has not been enough. Uzbekistan argued that it needs a working presence inside the South Korean travel trade itself, meaning relationships with tour operators, itineraries and packages built for Korean buyers, sustained destination marketing and service standards that hold up once visitors arrive.
Some of that has been attempted. In October 2024, an Uzbek-Korean tourism forum in Seoul drew more than 100 industry figures, with Uzbek tour operators and airlines presenting routes and packages aimed at the Korean market. Business-to-business meetings ran at the center of the program, letting companies negotiate directly rather than through their governments.
Uzbekistan wants to continue that work through the Korea Association of Travel Agents, proposing joint industry events and destination promotion campaigns inside South Korea. Korean firms would be pulled in the other direction as well, toward the Tashkent International Tourism Fair.
A less visible obstacle sits behind all of it. Uzbekistan does not have enough guides who speak Korean and understand what Korean visitors expect, and expanding their training has been set aside as a separate line of work.
That is where Uzbekistan wants South Korea as a partner in building the industry rather than simply a source of customers. Proposals under discussion with the Korea International Cooperation Agency include placing Korean specialists inside Uzbek tourism colleges, running exchanges and training programs in South Korea, and opening a Korean language and culture center at the Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage in Samarkand.
Exchanges of that kind have already started. Officials from Uzbekistan's Tourism Committee attended a high-level policy forum in May staged by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism under the Korea Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, the ministry's tourism assistance program for developing countries. An Uzbek entry took first place at the initiative's project competition in June. Uzbekistan counted 35,500 South Korean visitors in 2019, 41,300 in 2024 and 46,300 last year.
AJP Takeaways
- Uzbekistan proposed a dedicated tourism agreement between the two countries' tourism authorities, paired with an action plan on visitor numbers, putting the proposal out hours before a South Korea-Uzbekistan summit in Seoul on Monday afternoon and on top of an intergovernmental tourism agreement that has been in force since 2012.
- Uzbekistan said it drew about 7.75 million foreign tourists between January and July, up 22.6 percent year on year and worth roughly $3.9 billion in tourism service earnings, and placed the 26,500 South Korean arrivals in that period third among its long-haul markets behind China and Türkiye.
- Korea International Cooperation Agency is in discussions on placing Korean specialists inside Uzbek tourism colleges, running training and exchange programs in South Korea, and opening a Korean language and culture center at the Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage in Samarkand.
- The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism runs the Korea Partnership Initiative on Sustainable Tourism, its tourism assistance program for developing countries, which hosted the May policy forum attended by Uzbekistan's Tourism Committee and the June competition won by an Uzbek entry. The embassy material named the program by acronym only, and AJP established what it stands for and what it does.
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