Mongolia Working Hard to Get Tourists Back
With its reindeer sleigh rides, camel racing and amazing landscapes, Mongolia is hoping to attract visitors who are looking to get away from it all.
Like most countries, its tourism industry was devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and it has launched a "Welcome to MonGOlia" campaign to get people back.
The government has added flights and made it easier to visit, offering visa-free entry for many countries.
At least 437,000 foreign tourists visited in the first seven months of this year, up 25% over the same period last year, including increasing numbers from Europe, the US and Japan. Visitors from South Korea nearly doubled.
Despite the gains, Mongolia's government is still short of its goal of 1 million visitors per year from 2023-2025.
Tourism accounted for 7.2% of Mongolia's gross domestic product and 7.6% of its employment in 2019 before collapsing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Bank. But the organization noted major growth potential for tourism in Mongolia.
Lonely Planet named Mongolia its top destination in its Best in Travel 2024 report.
With a population of 3.3 million people, about half of them living in the capital, Ulaanbaatar, there's plenty of open space for tourists to explore in a country more than twice the size of Texas.
There's little chance of running across private property, so few places are off-limits, said Egjimaa Battsooj, who works for a tour company.
"You don't need to open a gate, you don't need to have permission from anyone," she said.
However, outside of the capital there is limited infrastructure and not enough accommodation.
It's also easy for foreigners to get lost, with few signs in English, said Dutch tourist Jasper Koning. Nevertheless, he said he was having a great trip.
"The weather is super, the scenery is more than super, it's clean, the people are friendly," he said.
