Sabina Ashurova is the owner of the family guest house “Koh-i-Noor” in Bukhara. During the school years she was interested in history, geography and foreign languages, later she studied tourism. Thereafter, she had no idea, that she would become a successful entrepreneur in the tourism business.
After getting married, Sabina, according to Uzbek tradition, settled in her husband’s house. She began to take an interest in the history of their home and learned from her mother-in-law that the family home had its own unique history. In the eighteenth century, the house belonged to the tea master of the court of the Bukhara emir. Sabina was intrigued.
When Sabina and her husband started their own family, she began to think about a career that would allow her to spend free time with her young children. Once, while walking along the narrow streets of old Bukhara, Sabina saw signs on the facades of private houses that read “Family Guest House.” It occurred to Sabina that this was exactly the opportunity she was looking for: owning a family guest house would give her the ability to share the history of her home, apply her skills gained from studying the hospitality industry and start a family business. At a family meeting, Sabina’s idea was supported by her husband and mother-in-law.
Family guest house "Koh-i-Noor" opened in 2019. On the opening day, Sabina met her first tourists from Fergana. Her hospitality and good service did not go unnoticed. Positive reviews of the house helped attract new tourists, and Koh-i-Noor was eventually named "Best Family Guest House of the Year" by the Bukhara Region Local Government.
“I remember well when tourists from Bosnia and Herzegovina came to us,” Sabina recalls fondly. “They read the reviews from the guests and wanted to see the lady of the house. It was unexpected and very pleasant for me. One of the guests hugged me and said that she had long wanted to meet me. This was another impetus for further business development.”
In 2021, Sabina learned through the Association of Private Tourism Organizations of Uzbekistan that USAID's Future Growth Initiative was offering training courses to promote tourism development. She soon became an active participant in the Initiative's training programs and acquired knowledge and skills in management, service, marketing and business promotion. Sabina also began to actively study competition and promote her services through social networks.
Sabina is proud that the company has become a family affair. “The most important thing to me is my family, my family members,” she says. “My husband, my parents and my husband’s parents supported me from the very beginning. Thanks to this support, I believed in myself, in my strength, and my dream of opening a family guest house became a reality”.