Sustainable Tourism Development in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Region

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The proposed regional knowledge and support technical assistance (TA) will support the development of a comprehensive framework to promote tourism development and cooperation in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) region, including through the formulation of a CAREC tourism strategy leading to 2030 and an integrated investment action plan with concrete projects to be implemented over the strategy period. The TA will also seek to enhance the capacity of tourism agencies and promote dialogue between public and private tourism stakeholders in the region.The proposed TA supports the implementation of CAREC 2030 strategy, as tourism is one of its operational priorities under cluster 2 (trade, tourism and economic corridor development). It builds on and continues the work completed under TA 9156-REG and TA 9556-REG, which have supported the development of a scoping study on 'Promoting Regional Tourism Cooperation under CAREC 2030 and the conduct of the first regional tourism workshop under the CAREC Program in 2018. The proposed TA aligns well with ADB Strategy 2030 (operational priority 7: fostering regional cooperation and integration) as well as with the Operational Plan for Regional Cooperation and Integration (RCI) 20162020. Tourism development is also included in CAREC countries' national strategies as a means for achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth.