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The government of Uzbekistan has once again decided to surprise citizens and tourists by announcing the creation of a Unified Digital Platform for National Tourism. According to the decree, the new portal is intended to become a universal assistant for tourists and is scheduled to launch fully on December 1, 2025. But the main question remains: why?
The Cost of Questionable Projects
The initiative seems ambitious, but is it justified? Let’s not forget that creating a basic website for the Center of Spirituality was expected to cost the budget 1.2 billion UZS, while a portal about Uzbek artists came with a price tag of 500 million UZS. One can only imagine how much money this tourism platform will consume.
Do tourists really need a “super portal” when most of the proposed features are already available through other services?
Features That Already Exist
The portal, as promised, will allow users to:
- book hotels;
- order services from guides and tour operators;
- call taxis and rent cars;
- purchase tickets for transportation and attractions;
- pay for services using payment systems.
But let’s be honest: isn’t all of this already possible? Booking.com, Google Maps, international taxi aggregators, airline websites, and travel apps handle these tasks perfectly. Why not support the development of existing platforms instead of spending billions to create a redundant tool?
Problems the Portal Won’t Solve
Creating a portal might be a nice idea, but it doesn’t address the key issues:
- Infrastructure. Tourists care more about access to quality roads, clean restrooms, and convenient transportation routes than another website.
- Service Quality. Issues with poor customer service, untrained guides, and overpriced tour operator services won’t disappear because of a platform.
- Information. Tourists today often complain about a lack of adequate signage, multilingual information, and basic details about attractions.
Reinventing the Wheel
This project looks like an attempt to “reinvent the wheel” that already works just fine. Tourism services are operational, and international platforms are time-tested and user-friendly. Why invest billions into something that already exists and, more importantly, functions better than any state-run portal?
Where Are the Real Priorities?
It would make much more sense to direct these funds toward improving tourism infrastructure:
- repairing roads to key attractions;
- building affordable hotels;
- training guides and tourism sector staff;
- introducing modern technologies on-site (e-tickets, audio guides, clear signage).
Conclusion
The creation of a Unified Digital Platform for Tourism seems like yet another way to showcase “grand-scale work” without delivering real results. Tourists value comfort, safety, and access to on-the-ground information more than another website with questionable functions.
Maybe it’s time to stop “impressing” people with billion-sum projects and focus on addressing the real needs of tourists?
The article may contain inaccuracies as it is translated by AI. For more details, please refer to the Russian version of the article. If you notice any inaccuracies, you can send corrections via the Telegram bot: Uzvaibik_bot.
