On February 21, 2019, the Ambassador of Uzbekistan to Belgium Dilyor Hakimov met with the Chief Executive Officer of the Confederation of National Associations of Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés and Similar Establishments in the European Union and European Economic Areas (HOTREC) Christian de Barrin.

HOTREC consists of an executive committee and 42 member organizations operating in 30 European countries. Among the observer countries are Georgia, Turkey and a number of other non-European states. The industry provides 11.9 million jobs in the EU.

At the meeting, the parties highly appreciated the transformations in the tourism industry of Uzbekistan over the past two years, which have become the most impressive in the world arena. While global tourism is growing by 7%, in Europe by 8%, Uzbekistan shows a doubling of its tourist flow. In this regard, the interest was reaffirmed in the early establishment of cooperation and partnership in the development of sustainable tourism, as well as further innovation and adaptation of travel services in Uzbekistan.

This requires major quality investments that will be made on the basis of a multi-stakeholder approach, partly funded by industry partners from EU countries. It also entails collaboration and research on big data for better management of tourist flows, artificial intelligence and blockchains. As part of the conversation, a conference call was organized with the leadership of the Association of Cooks of Uzbekistan in the course of which a plan was prepared for upcoming contacts.

Following the talks, the European side invited Uzbekistan to become a member of HORTEC. For this purpose, the necessary procedures will be initiated soon. In addition, the Association is invited to the international exhibition of food and packaging "FoodWeek & Horeca Uzbekistan 2019".