The office is on the first floor of The Gig Hotel, located on Sansabai Soi 4, near the Bangla nightlife district.
Present for the formal opening of the consulate on Saturday (Oct 7) were Mongolia Ambassador to Thailand Tumur Amarsanaa and Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, former Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office, along with Mongolian Honorary Consul Nutthaphong Phathakiatpaisan and Phuket Governor Sophon Suwannarat.
Ambassador Tumur said that the opening of the consulate help to mark 49 years of friendly relations between Mongolia and Thailand.
“The establishment of an Honorary Consulate in Phuket will help to elevate diplomatic relations between the two countries to a new level. It is a good opportunity to promote and create opportunities through the exchange of knowledge and wisdom in various fields between the people of both countries,” he said.
Mr Natthaphong added, “Mongolia is a beautiful and fascinating country. It also has a long and interesting history.”
Mongolia is the birthplace of Genghis Khan, also known as Chinggis Khan, who was the founder and first khagan of the Mongol Empire, which later became the largest contiguous land empire in history.
“I sincerely hope that we can promote tourism between the two countries even more. Both Thai tourists’ trips to Mongolia to experience the culture and the beauty of exotic nature, and Mongolian tourists who will travel to Thailand, especially Phuket and Phang Nga provinces. Each year the number of tourists continues to increase,” he said.
The Mongolian government has a policy to seriously support and promote the tourism industry,” Mr Nutthapong noted.
The Mongolian government has announced 2023 and 2024 as its “Years to visit Mongolia” and has set a goal to increase the number of tourists traveling to Mongolia from 250,000 to 1 million next year, he said.
The boost is hoped generate some US$1 billion in tourism revenue for Mongolia, equivalent to 15% of the country’s GDP
Under the ‘Years to visit Mongolia” campaign, citizens from 34 countries, including Thailand, will be exempted from visas, bringing the total to 61 countries whose nationals are exempt from visas for entering Mongolia.
Tourism between Thailand and Mongolia is increasing, Mr Nutthapong added. In 2019, there were about 6,000 Thai tourists to Mongolia, while approximately 16,000 Mongolian tourists came to Thailand.
But the numbers have fallen, despite recovering somewhat after the impact on tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, the number of Thai tourists going to Mongolia was 1,118, while 5,245 Mongolian tourists came to Thailand, he said.
Aiming to help boost tourism numbers, weekly flights between Phuket and the Mongolian capital Ulaanbataar are set to begin next month, and around 15,000 Mongolian visitors are expected to visit the island next year. Currently there are only three direct lights between Bangkok and Ulaanbataar every week.
Trade and investment between Thailand and Mongolia also stood to benefit. “There is a high opportunity to jointly develop cooperation. Mongolia has strengths in agriculture, livestock and various minerals, while Thailand has expertise in technology and the skills to add value to products,” he explained.
“Over the past two years, the value of trade between Mongolia and Thailand has continued to increase. There are investors from Thailand interested in investing in the mining industry and renewable energy industry in Mongolia. Meanwhile, investors from Mongolia have entered the Thailand market,” he said, highlighting that leading alcoholic beverage producer in Mongolia APU has begun to market its premium vodka brand ‘Chinggis Khan’ in Thailand.
“Under a five-year cooperation plan between Mongolia and Thailand (2022-2027), it has been set as a goal to increase the trade value between Mongolia and Thailand by a total of US$1.5 billion US dollars by 2027, from the current cumulative investment of the Thai private sector in Mongolia of approximately US$1,035bn,” he added.