Tourism
From The Report: Mongolia 2012
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Mongolia’s tourism industry has blossomed under a laissez-faire regime that allows private ownership and operation of facilities and tour companies. Leisure tourists, who number approximately 90,000 annually, visit the Central Asian countries for its unspoiled natural beauty and unique cultural attractions. Traditional tourists make up only a small fraction of those who visit Mongolia every year, with the rest being shuttle traders, although they still use facilities such as hotels and restaurants. One challenge is fighting the seasonality of the market, given the extreme winters Mongolia experiences. The government is looking to promote winter experiences such as the Eagle Festival and the Ice Festival.
This section has an interview with L. Gansukh, Former Minister of Environment and Tourism.

Articles from this Chapter

Overview

Call of the wild: A wide range of options opens up vast potential
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Almost a byword for remote landscapes, Mongolia exerts a strong pull on the adventurous traveller, and its unique offerings are being discovered by a new generation of visitors. The industry has a small but expanding base of business and backpacker tourists coming to explore and develop its economic potential, while the country looks to strengthen its leisure segment. Tourism has blossomed in recent years under a laissez-faire regime, with the private sector increasingly investing in the running…

Analysis

Better connections: Improvements to infrastructure allow for greater accessibility
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Infrastructure is one of the hot topics in Mongolia and with good reason – noticeable improvements have been made in recent years, and considerable investments are ongoing. The tourism industry is no exception, intricately linked as it is to the transport sector. ROADS: For its size, Mongolia has a relatively small network of paved roads – around 1500 km according to the World Bank – reflecting demography and the priority that was given to transnational transportation and the mining…

Interview

Broadening scope: OBG talks to Luimed Gansukh, Former Minister of Environment and Tourism
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Interview:Luimed Gansukh Which areas of the industry do you expect to be the primary growth drivers for arrivals in the future? LUIMED GANSUKH: The National Tourism Policy that the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism (MNET) has proposed identifies six areas for expansion; however the three primary drivers are expected to be ecotourism, border tourism and historical/cultural tourism. Ecotourism, which attracts wealthy Western tourists, is of special interest because it allows Mongolia…

Analysis

Capacity and competition: To meet market demand, the hotel segment is set to grow rapidly
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The next several years are likely to see the Mongolian hotel market become considerably more competitive and dynamic as major international chains open in the country and existing institutions look to strengthen their positions in the industry. Investments in both planned and existing hotels have come after several years of steady improvement in quality, which has been driven by overall rising demand from business tourists in particular. Nonetheless, an issue that has been regularly discussed…

Analysis

A new direction: New and improved marketing for the sector
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One of the most common concerns about the Mongolian tourism industry is that the country lacks a coordinated strategy and has not sufficiently promoted itself abroad. However, with the country looking to make tourism a major long-term economic driver, supporting diversification from mining and encouraging greater development – particularly in the countryside – sector leaders and officials are looking to develop a more cohesive strategy and unified structure to oversee the industry. Indeed…