The city of Khiva was awarded the certificate of the tourist capital of the Islamic world
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) presented the ancient city of Khiva of Uzbekistan with the certificate "Tourist Capital of the Islamic World in 2024". The certificate was presented to Khiva Mayor Timur Davletov by Ahmed Kavesa Sengendo, Deputy Secretary General of OIC.
The ancient city received this nomination in June 2022 at the 11th session of tourism ministers of OIC member states held in Baku. At that time, Abu Dhabi of the UAE, Sanliurfa of Turkey, Laos of Nigeria and Dushanbe of Tajikistan also competed for the status of the capital of tourism.
"The status of "tourist city of the Islamic world" by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation allows Khiva to become a more popular tourist destination in the international tourism market," said Jamshid Abdusalomov, the first deputy chairman of the tourism committee.
According to the representative of the Tourism Committee, Khiva is the only completely preserved city in Central Asia. More than 500,000 tourists visited this historical city last year, about 20% of tourists are from the OIC member states. It is planned to increase the number of tourists to 1 million in the future.
In accordance with the decision of the President of Uzbekistan, in order to actively promote the tourism potential of Khiva, in 2024, the Taste of Uzbekistan Festival gastronomic festival, the "Strongman" international judging game competition dedicated to the memory of Pahlavon Mahmud, the "International Pilgrimage Tourism Week" and other events are scheduled to be held in the city.
For information: today, the OIC is one of the largest international organizations in the world, uniting 57 countries with a population of 1.7 billion. Uzbekistan became a member of this organization in 1996.
