Mongolia announced 2023-2025 as the “Year to visit Mongolia”. Japan, China, South Korea, and Russia have been identified as the target market for tourism. There are 238 million tourists within a three-hour flight zone around Mongolia. By age group, the 1983-2000 generation accounts for the largest number of 121 million.
Younger tourists plan, pay, and receive tourism services online when planning their trip. According to these calculations by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Mongolia can attract 1.2 million tourists or 1 percent of the new generation tourists. Within this goal Mongolia aims to attract 50,000 tourists from Japan, 450,000 from China, 150,000 from South Korea, 250,000 from Russia, and 150,000 tourists from other countries.
With a goal to develop tourism sector Mongolia exempted 34 countries from visa requirements. As a result, the number of visa-free travel countries in Mongolia has increased to 61. In addition, Mongolia is making efforts to establish direct flights with the United States, bring Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines to Mongolia, and support local flights.
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has forecasted that 1,250-1,450 tourists can be received by air transport per day and 2,900-3,400 tourists by land. Specifically, Mongolia is estimated to receive:
- 200,000 tourists from January to May
- 550,000 tourists from June to September
- 250,000 tourists from October to December.
As of January 31 of this year, Mongolia has received 19,319 tourists. Though Mongolia has expanse, broad lands with rich history and cultural landscape, the tourism sector is not developing at a high level due to inadequate infrastructure, unprofessional services, lack of communications, insufficient investment, and seasonal effects.
The Ministry of Environment and Tourism reported that in 2022, Mongolia received 290,400 tourists and the tourism sector income reached USD 350 million. The number of Russian tourists who visited Mongolia reached 145,000, surpassing the figure of 2019, the period before the pandemic, and reached the highest level.