Developing a Regional Tourism Sustainability and Resilience Index to Assess the Effectiveness of Tourism Resource Use: Evidence From Uzbekistan

This study develops a Regional Tourism Sustainability and Resilience Index (RTSRI) to assess the effectiveness of tourism resource use in Uzbekistan. The index is designed as a multidimensional framework encompassing economic value creation, service and infrastructure capacity, sustainability, and resilience. The empirical analysis is based on official statistics from the National Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the SIAT database. Inbound tourist trips increased from 1.881 million in 2021 to 11.680 million in 2025, while tourism service exports increased from USD 422.1 million to USD 4.880 billion over the same period. A pilot regional sub-index is calculated for six major tourism destinations using 2025 data on accommodation and food services, tourism-related business capacity, and specialised accommodation facilities. The study also proposes an RTSRI-based management model that links measurement, diagnosis, targeted policy measures, and service-sector outcomes. A baseline trend forecast suggests that the number of inbound tourist trips could reach approximately 22.3 million, while tourism service exports could reach approximately USD 10.1 billion by 2030. The findings indicate that tourism performance should be assessed using a broader set of regional indicators rather than visitor numbers alone.