The Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism is holding tourism promotion activities in Vietnam from April 4 to 7 during the first time this landlocked country takes part in the Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Festival, VNA reported.

This also marks the start of activities to be held on the threshold of the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations (November 17, 1954 - 2024).

At the festival, a programme named "Go Mongolia Roadshow 2024” is organized to introduce the Mongolian culture, tourism and cuisine; and explore tourism cooperation opportunities between the two countries.

Mongolian artists perform at the pavilion of their country at the HCM City Tourism Festival 2024. Photo: VNA

The booth attended the HCM City Tourism Festival with typical decorations of the famous Yurt tent in the steppe region and men and women in traditional costumes performing Mongolian folk music which has brought to the local people a breath of wild and exciting steppe life. Along with that, the unique cultural features and beauty of life on the vast steppe are also factors that attract Vietnamese tourists.

Galbaa Davkharbayar, Second Secretary of the Mongolian Embassy in Vietnam, said the HCM City Tourism Festival is a chance for his country to introduce its culture and people to the Vietnamese and help travel businesses of Mongolia seek partnerships with Vietnamese firms to increase visitors to each other’s markets, thus contributing to economic ties and friendship between the two countries.

The numbers of Vietnamese visitors to Mongolia and Mongolian visitors to Vietnam have been on the rise over the past years, but that has yet to fully live up to the countries’ huge tourism potential, he noted.

He cited statistics as showing that more than 2,000 Vietnamese tourists came to Mongolia in 2023 when the number of Mongolian travelers to the Southeast Asian nation topped 15,000.

The tourism introduction booth of the Mongolia Tourism Association received the attention of Vietnamese travel businesses. Photo: VNA

Sharing about the potential for tourism cooperation between Vietnamese and Mongolian businesses, Zolkhuu Ulambayar, Director of Mongolian travel company TMD Tourist LLC, perceived that aside from each country’s tourism advantages, the bilateral visa exemption agreement, which came into force on March 7 this year, will also create favorable conditions and good opportunities for businesses to strengthen trade, investment and tourism ties, as well as people-to-people exchanges.

HCM City is a big tourism center of Vietnam and also has a large number of tourists traveling abroad. Given this, an Ulaanbaatar - HCM City air route expected to be opened by Mongolian Airlines this November will help encourage more Mongolians and Vietnamese to visit each other’s countries, he added.

Over the past 70 years, the traditional friendship between Vietnam and Mongolia has continuously been consolidated, strengthened, and developed. Cooperation in the fields of politics, diplomacy, economics, trade, investment, agriculture, and education is paid attention to and promoted by leaders at all levels and is increasingly expanded, deepened, and takes the bilateral traditional friendship to a new, practical, and effective stage of development.

Vietnam and Mongolia have regularly exchanged high-level delegations to promote bilateral relations in all fields. Most recently, in early November 2023, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and his spouse paid a state visit to Vietnam. During this visit, the leaders of the two countries agreed to upgrade the bilateral ties to a "comprehensive partnership" on the occasion of the 70th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2024.

The two sides also signed an agreement on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic, official and ordinary passports. On this occasion, a ceremony was held to announce the opening of a direct flight route between Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa) and Mongolia’s capital city of Ulaanbaatar.

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