A STATISTICAL ASSESSMENT OF TOURISM CLUSTERS IN DRIVING REGIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF UZBEKISTAN AND CYPRUS

This paper examines the role of tourism clusters, particularly gastro-tourism clusters, in regional economic development through a comparative analysis of Uzbekistan and Cyprus. The study combines bibliometric and text-mining analyses of approximately 1,000 publications (2018–2026) using Publish or Perish and VOSviewer, a Location Quotient (LQ) assessment of regional tourism specialization in Uzbekistan, and a qualitative adaptation of the Cypriot gastro-tourism cluster model described by Garanti and Stylianou (2022). The bibliometric results indicate a shift in research focus from resourcebased themes towards visitor experience, digital marketing, and community participation. The LQ results identify Samarkand and Bukhara, followed by Tashkent Region, as the regions with the strongest tourism specialization. On this basis, the paper proposes region-specific recommendations for developing gastro-tourism clusters in Uzbekistan.