Future of tourism post COVID-19 discussed

Environment
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2020-10-29 15:55:45

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ A meeting themed “COVID-19 and Tourism Post COVID-19” was held at Sky Resort on October 28 within the opening of International Travel Mart (ITM) 2020. The meeting attendees touched sustainable tourism in special protected areas, post-crisis opportunities, ways to overcome, foreign investment, eco-solution, eco-friendly tourism trend and product types of winter tourism.

 

During the event, President of the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry O.Amartuvshin remarked that the tourism industry promotes our way of life, culture and heritage aside from developing number of businesses. Tourists come to see feature and distinction of the country. Therefore, I am calling to make feature of Mongolia a tourism brand.


ITM-2020, which is being organized for the 21st year by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Mongolian Tourism Association, will run under the motto “Tourism and Rural Development” on October 30-31 at Misheel Expo Center. More than 200 entities including hotels, tourist camps, restaurants, handicraft companies, museums and sanatoriums will promote their activities while corresponding officials will present about projects and programs run by SME Development Fund and green loan during the travel fair that aims to connect businesses, provide them with opportunities to find partners and promote their products.


During the meeting themed “COVID-19 and Tourism Post COVID-19”, we talked with President of the Mongolian Tourism Association D.Gantumur within the topic.


Tourism industry of the world countries are experiencing hardship during the period of COVID-19 pandemic. How is the situation in Mongolia?  


Tourism industry is experiencing huge loss amid the pandemic. Having zero local transmission is creating a positive image for Mongolia. And the countries are developing domestic tourism based on features of their country.


There is no way for us other than adapting to a new situation caused by the pandemic. How about the tourism industry?


Necessity has arisen to see tourism industry from a different angle and create new versions. It is important to pursue a policy to maintain the interest of the tourist for a longer period and improve service quality rather than focusing attention on the number of tourists. Mongolia prefers to develop eco-friendly tourism based on national features. Different types of domestic tourism will be developed in addition to increasing its significance. I am hopeful that tourism would define the new image of Mongolia further.

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Could you tell us about the ways to develop domestic tourism?


Domestic tourism will be developed in various types including recreational travel, medical travel based on way of living and characteristics of Mongolian people. Concurrently with it, we will attach attention on environmentally-friendly tourism without leaving the issues behind such as toilet and waste. Furthermore, we will learn from the experience of some countries to develop winter tourism. There is an example that a citizen from Norway, building engineer J.Erik made investment of USD 1 million to Mongolia’s tourism industry, founding a tourism camp with ecosolutions in Selenge aimag in this time of the pandemic.


How much revenue did the tourism industry earn last year?


Tourism industry gained revenue of USD 607,231 million last year. Around 580,000 tourists arrived in Mongolia and it is an increased performance by 11 percent compared to the previous year. While, statistics show that 2,4 million (duplicated counting) Mongolian people traveled overseas last year.

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