Your Voice, Our Commitment: Our 2024 Feedback Review
Like most companies, we request feedback at the end of each trip through a comprehensive feedback form. While we can’t speak for others, we’ve always taken the time to carefully analyse this input and use it to refine and improve what we do. We value feedback tremendously—it helps us learn, grow, and remain competitive with larger international operators while staying true to our values.
Transparency and openness have always been at the heart of our work. That’s why we’re sharing an overview of our 2024 feedback review, along with the changes it has inspired. Not only have we reached out to each of our 2024 guests with this overview—so they can see how others experienced EL—but we are also sharing it publicly. This is to demonstrate that we do listen and to offer prospective guests a clear understanding of what to expect from an EL experience. It also reassures our past guests that their support truly matters.
Feedback Review: What Didn’t Go Right & Changes We Are Making
- Trip Assistant Availability Issues: Two of our trip assistants became unavailable at the last minute due to illness and personal circumstances, impacting three trips in September. While we have a large team, all our other trip assistants were already on tour or unavailable. Although we have a network of people willing to help, the short notice made finding suitable replacements challenging. We adapted quickly, but unfortunately, this led to stress and disappointment for both our team and our guests.
- Changes We Have Made: We have partnered with the Mongolian Professional Tour Guides Association to gain access to a wider pool of qualified trip assistants in emergency situations. We also continue to work on funding and establishing Chandmana Erdene, a tourism training centre for women in Mongolia, as part of our long-term commitment to creating opportunities within the industry. Additionally, we maintain our monthly low-season training sessions for our female team members—training that is directly shaped by the feedback we receive, ensuring it remains relevant and impactful.
- Overcrowding at the Eagle Festival: Festival attendance remains unregulated, and at the September Eagle Festival, our partnering families were overwhelmed by companies arriving unannounced. While we always book in advance, many other operators do not, causing logistical challenges and impacting the experience we had planned for our guests.
Changes We Have Made: We now focus on a different festival in September and will continue to promote low season tourism including March when the Nauryz eagle festival takes place. Additionally, for any of the three main Eagle Festivals, we now pay for extra gers to be set up to accommodate our guests comfortably.
- Unreliable Domestic Flights: Domestic airlines canceled tickets without notifying us, even after we had confirmed bookings the day before. These last-minute cancellations caused significant disruptions for our guests.
Changes We Have Made: While we have limited control over airline policies, we are refining our contingency plans to better manage sudden cancellations and minimise disruption for our guests.
- Vehicle Breakdowns: Two trips were impacted by vehicle breakdowns. While mechanical issues are a common challenge in Mongolia and affect all operators, these particular incidents disrupted trip logistics and impacted the guest experience.
- Changes We Have Made: Our vehicles are driver-owned, meaning maintenance and replacement costs fall on them. While we already pay a service and maintenance fee on top of their wages, we are exploring ways to create a fund to support drivers who need to purchase new vehicles, ensuring a more reliable transport experience. This initiative is in addition to the interest-free loans we provide to our team when needed.
Feedback Review: Things We Did Get Right
- Expanding Accessibility in Mongolian Travel: This year, we proudly welcomed our first wheelchair user and blind traveller to Mongolia. Their journeys reinforced our commitment to making Mongolia more accessible for all travellers, regardless of ability, and highlighted the importance of inclusive travel experiences.
- Recognition for Gender Equality in Tourism: We were honoured to be named Gender Equality Champions of the Year by Equality in Tourism International for our ongoing efforts to create a more inclusive and equitable tourism industry. From supporting female trip assistants to challenging traditional roles within Mongolia’s tourism sector, we continue to break down barriers and foster opportunities for underrepresented voices.
- Building Long-Term Connections with Our Guests: Welcoming back returning guests is always a privilege, and this year we had the joy of hosting travellers on their third visit with EL. These lasting relationships not only reaffirm the value of our approach but also enable us to continue the work we do behind the scenes and expand the positive impact we strive to create.
- Sustaining and Strengthening Local Partnerships: In 2024, we continued our commitment to supporting the 28 families we partner with by designing itineraries that offer guests an authentic experience of their way of life. More importantly, we ensure that tour payments are directly reinvested into these families and their communities in a way that is both managed and measured. By prioritising responsible tourism, we help sustain livelihoods while providing our guests with a deeper, more meaningful connection to Mongolia. This year also marked the launch of our Preliminary Impact Report, offering a transparent look at how our support is distributed and where tour money goes. The full 2024 Impact Report will be published within the next month, further demonstrating how you—our guests—are an integral part of a bigger travel philosophy.
Navigating a Changing Tourism Landscape
Since Mongolia’s reopening after two years of pandemic-related closure, the government’s decision to extend visa-free entry through to 2028 and set a goal of welcoming 2 million tourists by 2030 has significantly reshaped the country’s tourism industry.
Since 2006, when we first started working together in Mongolia, and then in 2010 when we officially established our business, we have witnessed major shifts—not just in Mongolia, but in tourism as a whole. We live and breathe the country we operate in, yet we continue to face persistent challenges: the lack of tourism regulation and the gap between visitors’ expectations and the reality of Mongolia. Additionally, a government-led influencer marketing campaign—bringing influencers to promote Mongolia—has further reinforced widespread stereotypes about travel in the country.
Despite these challenges, we remain motivated by our ethics. Unlike many operators, we don’t have investors, which gives us the flexibility to adapt while staying true to our values.
However, we operate in a difficult middle ground. Mongolia’s travel costs are significantly higher than in other parts of Asia, yet it is often perceived as a budget destination. Despite our efforts to showcase the reality of travelling with us, the cost of our trips sometimes leads travellers to assume we are a luxury company. Others, when experiencing our homestay options, mistakenly think we are cutting corners. The truth is, we are simply committed to creating a travel experience that is both responsible, showcases modern Mongolia, and connected to the local communities where we work.
Our commitment to making tourism in Mongolia more equitable means we don’t offer a standardised experience. Instead, we focus on meaningful, immersive travel that prioritises community partnerships and cultural exchange over mass-market tourism.
We deeply appreciate every guest who has chosen to travel with us in 2024 and allowed us to continue this journey. As a small team—sometimes too small to be as efficient as we’d like—our priority is always to ensure that each guest’s experience is meaningful and rewarding, while also benefiting Mongolia.
For now, we’ll pause here, but we always welcome your thoughts and comments.
Thank you for being part of a bigger travel philosophy.
We’ve also highlighted some of our ongoing sustainability goals or focus points for 2025 below.
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Our Tourism Manifesto For Mongolia
As Mongolia gears up to potentially welcome two million visitors, maintaining a balance between promoting tourism and safeguarding its natural and cultural heritage is imperative. We think the key to reconciling the goals of economic benefit from tourism with environmental and cultural conservation lies in sustainable tourism practices. That’s why, on Earth Day, we published our sustainable tourism manifesto for Mongolia. We have set a three year goal to make this happen.
Learn more here – https://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/earth-day-our-tourism-manifesto-for-mongolia/
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Our Annual National Park Community Clean Up
We acknowledge that Mongolia is not the untouched wilderness often portrayed, but preserving its scenic beauty and wilderness remains crucial for responsible travel. Since 2014, we’ve organized the Tariat community’s two-day effort to clear Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park’s north shore and Khorg volcano area in the central Khangai Mountains. This initiative addresses the pressing issue of discarded waste in rural communities, lacking the means to manage it. Our annual community clean-up not only fosters sustainable tourism but also instills a shared environmental responsibility among locals. This engagement enhances the park’s aesthetics, maintains ecological balance, and promotes a deeper connection with nature. We’re proud of the local community’s commitment to improving the environmental impact of visitors in the area.
Learn more here – https://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/mongolia-national-park-community-clean-up/
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Chandmana Erdene
The United Nations Global Report on Women and Tourism highlights the tourism sector’s potential for women’s workforce participation, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Since our establishment in 2010, Eternal Landscapes Mongolia has exclusively employed Mongolian female guides and offered a low-season tourism training programme for women. This experience has paved the way for Chandmana Erdene, our groundbreaking initiative embracing a ‘circular approach to tourism.’ It reimagines industry growth with circular economy principles, placing women at the heart of economic recovery and policy development.
We are on the lookout for funding to make Chandmana Erdene a reality. With the land already secured, we need US$ 300,000 for the centre’s construction based on Passivhaus principles. Your support can help us break down these barriers and bring our vision of Chandmana Erdene to life. Please reach out to us with your ideas to help us turn our vision into a reality.
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Funding Toilets
For the herding families we work in partnership with, most migrate throughout the year and do not necessarily have access to a toilet at some of their pasture locations or they have very casual latrine-style toilets that often need improvements. We know the facilities aren’t great and by bringing visitors to their homes, we are increasing the pressure on the toilet facilities. Although nearly all tourism companies in Mongolia use homestay experiences provided by Mongolian herding families and although we are a small company and restrained by time and our limited financial resources, we are looking at ways we can fund composting toilets for the families we work with. Dry toilets are also an option but herding families live life on a thin edge and realistically do not have the time required for dealing with dry toilets. We also need to consider the ongoing maintenance of any toilets owned by the families or that we arrange to be built.
Learn more here – https://www.eternal-landscapes.co.uk/toilets-tourism-and-mongolia/
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