In connection with the Government’s decision to fully open the country’s borders to international travel and lift pandemic restrictions, a conference took place under the theme, ‘New Revival Policy - Tourism’, on February 14. The conference was organized at the initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism.

In aims of effectively implementing the ‘Vision-2050’ long-term development policy and boosting the productivity of government organizations, the Government recently approved the ‘New Revival Policy’, its program for implementation in phases, and large-scale development projects that are planned to be carried out in its framework.

During the conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs B.Battsetseg highlighted that the tourism sector has a crucial role in accelerating the country’s economy, and noted that the Ministry is focusing on smoother entry of foreign nationals traveling to Mongolia, and providing support for tourism by carrying out certain works.

Based on the effective practices of countries around the world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is actively working to facilitate the travel conditions of foreign nationals, and further refining the legal environment for tourism and investment. Currently, visa exemption arrangements have been made for ordinary passport holders of 25 nationalities and diplomatic and official passport holders of 63 nationals. 

Through the evisa.mn system, foreign nationals of 36 countries are also being issued three types of short-term visas in 20-72 hours.

Following the agreement that was reached on the issue of developing tourism in the Mongolia-China border region, the K3 visa has been introduced which is a three-day visa. 

In the framework of Mongolia’s foreign policy, ‘Vision-2050’ long-term development policy, and the Government’s action plan for 2020-2024, a comprehensive program is currently being implemented on expanding cultural relations with other countries by accelerating promotional works abroad.

Through the 46 Diplomatic Representatives’ Offices around the world, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also consistently promotes the laws of Mongolia as well as the policies, decisions, and works being carried out by the Government. Within the aims of increasing the country’s competitiveness for tourism internationally, and developing sustainable tourism, support is being provided for developing cooperation in economy and tourism with other countries alongside promoting the Government’s policy on tourism development.

Furthermore, preparations have been recently completed for projects and programs aimed at boosting the country’s tourism sector with the involvement of Mongolian citizens abroad, and utilizing new opportunities in increasing the flow of foreign and domestic tourists in the country. 

As for the issue concerning vaccinations, the mutual acknowledgement of ‘Health Certificate for International Travel’ or vaccine certificates have been reached with the countries of Kazakhstan, Hungary, Turkey, Japan, India, and the U.K, while talks are underway with countries such as Canada, UAE, South Korea, China, Russia, and the EU. 

During the conference, the participants highlighted the importance of specifically defining the pressing issues for developing tourism in Mongolia and resolving them, increasing the sector’s competitiveness internationally, ensuring the correlation between the policy and works of corresponding organizations in order to improve the current conditions for tourism based on public-private-people partnership, and organizing promotional works abroad comprehensively by handling the matter through a ‘single window’.