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54 I Eurasia bne August 2020
total decrease in the exports of services in the first quarter of 2020, almost $24.7mn, tourism services accounted for more than half (54.7%).
In the first quarter of 2020, the total revenue from accommodation services reached MNT35.3bn ($12.5mn), and the revenue of food services attained MNT102.9bn ($36.5mn), respectively 42.9% and 2.6% decreases compared to the same period of last year. In 2019
restaurants and hotels had a combined revenue of MNT766.6bn, equivalent to over $270mn.
According to CEIC Data, Mongolia registered 577,300 foreign visitors in 2019, a increase of 10% compared to the previous year. The Chinese led the charts in the first quarter of 2019, making up 39.6% of the total number of tourists in Mongolia. Secondly came the Russians (36.8%), followed by South Koreans
(10.7%). For the same period this year, Russians increased their share to half (51.5%), while China and South Koreans fell to 20% and 14.4% respectively. Visitors from Kazakhstan, the fourth country in the list, have remained roughly the same, accounting for 3% and 3.9% in the reported periods.
China is just across the southern border, so Mongolia was exposed to and aware of the spreading epidemic from the start. The government started taking preventive measures early on, in order to keep the virus from spreading through its very small population, of which half live in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. In January, after children had only been back at school for a week after the winter break, the government shut the schools and switched to online and distance learning via TV.
A few weeks later, the Lunar New Year (Tsagaan Sar) public celebrations were suspended and families were strongly recommended to cancel big family gatherings, when traditionally the younger members travel all around the country to visit their older relatives and pay them their respects.
In February, international flights
were suspended and still are. Since
then, foreign residents who wanted to
go home could only do so in the few chartered flights to locations with a large Mongolian population, who wanted to be repatriated. The land borders with Russia and China were also closed to travellers, but not goods.
The fast action of the government paid off. The first confirmed COVID-19 infection was only announced on March 10, brought into the country by a French citizen. Three months later the country now has had 215 reported cases, though there are no reports of local transmission, and so far, not a single death.
Hoping to keep things this way, the Government intends to maintain the country in lockdown until a vaccine is found, according to an announcement made by Prime Minister Khurelsukh Ukhnaa on May 25. Currently there are no public plans to reopen the borders or restart international commercial flights.
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