Ulaanbaatar, December 12, 2023 /MONTSAME./ The Tourism and Green Investment Conference was held on December 11, 2023. At the Conference Ts. Baatarsaikhan, President of the Professional Tourism Association (PTA), noted that tourism is the most promising industry, but the quality of services will not improve without investment. In this context, he called on entrepreneurs, companies, and banks to invest in the tourism sector.

"Mongolia became one of the few countries that managed to recover the tourism sector after the pandemic. Next year we expect to receive a million tourists. The number of seats on an airline is directly related to the number of foreign tourists. MIAT expects to increase the number of seats by 40 percent and deliver 1.2 million seats to the market in 2024. It is commendable that the government is investing in the development of local airports. For example, out of 400 million people from 5 countries that have direct flights with MIAT, 650 thousand were passengers flying for the first time. One percent of the profit from these flights is MNT 4 million. Air transport plays a very important role as more than half of these tourists arrive by plane. In 2023, 1.2 billion people traveled around the world. This number is expected to reach 1.8 billion in 2030. If we develop our air transport, we can welcome 3.4 million tourists," stated Ts. Baatarsiakhan.

B. Batchimeg, Head of the Department of Tourism Policy Coordination, Ministry of Environment and Tourism, emphasized that the tourism sector recovered fast after the pandemic and in 2023 Mongolia received over 650 thousand tourists exceeding the number of 577 thousand tourists received in 2019.

Over 50 percent of tourists coming to Mongolia are from Russia, China, and Korea and USD 2.5 million generated from the air transport from tourists from these countries can be concentrated in the climate fund. Chief Executive Officer of the One Billion Trees Fund B. Bayarmaa noted that in cooperation with banks, this money could be used for green investments in tourism, tree planting, reforestation, and combating desertification. The One Billion Trees Fund, founded in March 2023, has allocated MNT 1.3 billion to 34 projects and planted more than 100,000 trees so far. In the future, the Find plans to support and collaborate with the "One Tourist, One Tree" project.

At the Conference, N. Ulziibayar, initiator of ARA Complex, presented the successful organization of the guest houses, commercial services, toilets, entertainment, zoo, live music performance, and sports events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Arkhangai aimag. He also shared his ideas on how to attract tourists, organize tourist events, and conduct research.   

Arkhangai aimag is known for its natural beauty, and in 2023 every third tourist visited it. Arkhangai aimg is located 450 km from the capital, at the crossroads of tourist roads and 85-110 thousand cars and 250-300 thousand tourists passed through its territory last year.

The Tourism and Green Investment Conference was organized by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the PTA to strengthen public-private partnerships, promote an enabling environment for domestic investors in the tourism industry and exchange views on strategic plans for the next year.