2006.05.19: May 19, 2006: Headlines: COS - Mongolia: Tourism: UB Post: Peace Corps helps promote tourism in provinces in Mongolia
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2006.05.19: May 19, 2006: Headlines: COS - Mongolia: Tourism: UB Post: Peace Corps helps promote tourism in provinces in Mongolia
Peace Corps helps promote tourism in provinces in Mongolia
“The local small tour operators haven’t got the resources to advertise in English. By creating these websites we bypass the middleman, and often make [the tourist’s] Mongolian experience much more enjoyable. These small companies have the local expertise needed to go off the main trail, for a really unique trip at a price far below that of a centrally organized tour,” argues O’Rourke. The websites would also be an example of sustainable development. In partnership with local NGOs, the Peace Corps volunteers are teaching people how to keep the sites up to date after they leave, whilst the expertise gained can be used in other internet based activities.
Peace Corps helps promote tourism in provinces in Mongolia
Corps for Celebration
by Peter Wood
Mongolian aimags (or provinces) are reaching out to the wider world with the help of the U.S. Peace Corps. Over the last few months every Mongolian aimag has been producing regional websites to promote the individual activities that it has on offer.<br /><br />For independent visitors to Mongolia, it has always been problematic to research travel opportunities off the main tourist trail. With journeys to far flung aimags sometimes taking a week or more, most travelers cannot afford to arrive uncertain as to whether they will be able to achieve their desires. As a result they are compelled to book with tour companies in Ulaanbaatar and submit to a loss of freedom. This is all about to change.
With the free help of the Peace Corps’ technical and linguistic skills, they hope to stimulate regional tourist income, decentralizing the currently Ulaanbaatar-based industry.
“With average wages in the countryside at around Tg 40-60,000 a month, it doesn’t take much to make a difference. Only a few extra tourists would bring a huge benefit to the local economy,” says Peace Corps volunteer Lizzie O’Rourke. With so many tours based in the capital, each using their own transport and bringing their own guides, only a small proportion of the money spent by the visitors goes to the local aimag.
“The local small tour operators haven’t got the resources to advertise in English. By creating these websites we bypass the middleman, and often make [the tourist’s] Mongolian experience much more enjoyable. These small companies have the local expertise needed to go off the main trail, for a really unique trip at a price far below that of a centrally organized tour,” argues O’Rourke. The websites would also be an example of sustainable development. In partnership with local NGOs, the Peace Corps volunteers are teaching people how to keep the sites up to date after they leave, whilst the expertise gained can be used in other internet based activities.
>The Peace Corps volunteers have tried to maximize the use of community resources, not relying on outside expertise, choosing to be taught Mongolian in the areas their projects are based. This can have a number of benefits, as Lizzie has discovered. “If you come to Mongolia for a week, a month or longer, and you want to be taught Mongolian, you have to do it in Ulaanbaatar. For many people, that’s not the side of Mongolia they want to see.” By using the website to connect rural teachers with prospective visiting pupils they create another route by which money can flow to the countryside. “The best part is that tourism is greatest in the summer, outside term time here too, when teachers have the most free time and greatest need for a little extra money.”<br /><br />With another summer approaching, and the aimags ready to take advantage of the 800th anniversary’s bumper tourist crop, these websites can only help draw people from the expense and dirt of the capital to the beauty and open skies of rural Mongolia.</div></td>
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Story Source: UB Post
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Mongolia; Tourism
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