WAYS OF ENHANCING AND IMPROVING THE AGRОTOURISM POTENTIAL OF THE BUKHARA REGION

Аннотация

This article examines the development of agritourism in the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan
and identifies practical directions for its improvement. The aim of the study is to determine the
principal obstacles to agritourism development and to elaborate evidence-based recommendations
adapted to local conditions. The research was carried out in 2023–2024 across six districts of the
region and combined a structured survey of 450 farm managers and 320 local residents, semistructured interviews with 45 experts, a SWOT analysis, statistical processing of regional data for
2019–2023 in SPSS Statistics 26.0, and comparative analysis of foreign and domestic experience.
The results show that, despite the region possessing the natural, agricultural and cultural resources
required for agritourism, its potential remains underused because of systemic constraints:
insufficient infrastructure (78% of respondents), a shortage of qualified personnel (65%), a lack of
financial support (82%) and weak marketing (88%). Correlation analysis revealed a strong positive
relationship between infrastructure development and the number of agritourism facilities (r = 0.82,
p < 0.01). On this basis, seven interrelated priority directions are proposed. The study concludes
that a systemic, coordinated approach can increase the number of agritourism facilities severalfold by 2030 and substantially raise rural incomes.