Integral Assessment and Spatial Clustering of Regional Tourism Potential in Uzbekistan: A Meso-Level Composite-Index Approach
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51699/cajitmf.v5i8.1325Keywords:
Regional Tourism, Composite Index, Spatial Clustering, Tourism Potential, Meso-Level Analysis, UzbekistanAbstract
Aggregate national tourism statistics conceal pronounced sub-national heterogeneity that conditions the efficiency of place-based tourism policy. This study develops and applies a meso-level Integral Tourism Potential Index (ITPI) to thirteen administrative regions of Uzbekistan, aggregating expert-rated attractiveness scores across seven tourism-product types, and validates it against realized inbound orientation. Regions are ranked and partitioned by tercile thresholds into high-potential, medium-potential and emerging tiers, and positioned within a two-dimensional potential-attractiveness space. Samarkand (4.41) leads the ranking, followed by a diversified high-potential tier comprising Tashkent region, Kashkadarya, Fergana and Surkhandarya. Notably, the heritage-specialized regions of Bukhara and Khorezm occupy the medium tier despite dominating the historical-cultural and pilgrimage dimensions, because a breadth-based index penalizes narrow product specialization. The decomposition demonstrates that regional potential is product-specific rather than uniform: agro, ethnographic and recreational strengths are spatially complementary to heritage assets. The findings provide an empirical basis for differentiated, cluster-specific regional tourism strategies.
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