Tourist footfall to Mongolia increase by 9.7% in 2018

Tourist footfalls to Mongolia has increased in the first half of the year, registering 9.7 per cent increase from the previous year, according to a data released by the National Statistical Office of Mongolia.

Around 238,100 tourists visited the East Asian country between January and June, compared to 217,000 visits during the same period last year. Neighbors China and Russia together contributed the most of the foreign tourists, accounting for 38.7 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.

Declaring 2018 tourism year, landlocked Mongolia has been striving to develop its tourism in a bid to diversify its mining-dependent economy, said Xinhua.

In 2017, the tourism revenue was over 400 million US dollars. Mongolia has set a goal of attracting 1 million foreign tourists in 2020, earning 1 billion dollars.