Mongolia suffers from many obstacles to tourism development, both those inherent to the nation and those that can, and should, be targets for improvement. Unfortunately several of these challenges stem from Mongolia’s isolated location, climate, and the poor state of travel infrastructure - conditions that will be neither easily nor soon improved. To the average tourist, these conditions translate into a destination that is expensive to reach and hard to get around in upon arrival. When compared with neighboring and regional tourism destinations, Mongolia is often one of the most expensive and least accessible. For tourism companies, the short season makes it hard to save enough income to reinvest or grow. Some positive steps that have encouraged tourism include relatively little restrictive regulation of private tourism businesses and a supportive visa policy.

For tourism to truly develop to the benefit of the country, much more work remains to coordinate activity between the government and private industry. Mongolia is, and will likely remain for some time, a niche market with great appeal to specific groups. In cases such as this, the government should take a proactive role to market the country as a national destination, allowing private companies to contribute to these efforts. The celebration of the 800^th anniversary of the founding of the Mongolian nation represented an incredible opportunity for Mongolia to enter the world tourism stage and shape the image of the country. To be effective, national branding for tourism requires private companies and government to contribute to the development of a national tourism identity. In Mongolia’s case, such an identity exists, embodied abroad by untouched nature and centuries old nomadic culture. Looking at the marketing of the various 800^th anniversary events, it is difficult to see any promotion of this identity. The plethora of new tour companies seem more intent on selling ‘luxury’ tourism in Mongolia than on developing a sustainable tourism destination. Only a few private companies have shown the initiative and creativity to invest in tourism - building luxury lodges, offering new services, and investing in the quality of their companies.

The role of the government is to support these initiatives and reduce restrictive policies that hamper tourism. There is much technical knowledge available to the government from NGOs and consultants that could also be tapped for assistance in areas where sufficient capacity doesn’t exist. On the policy side, the government has already created a number of good initiatives to support tourism but much remains. While many tourists certainly appreciate the ease of getting a visa (or not having to get one at all) they are just as certainly frustrated at dual pricing policies and put-off by displays of public drunkenness and refuse. Mongolia has shown the world that it has a lot to offer tourists, but now needs to prove that both industry and government are serious about supporting it.