Visitors are often surprised at Mongolia’s vastness and navigating the country is a challenge. Tapatrip, a homegrown booking app with international aspirations, is making traveling through the region more accessible.

Ulaanbaatar

Traveling across Mongolia has traditionally been difficult due to its vast distances and limited infrastructure, with many services requiring in-person bookings. Tapatrip, a Mongolian startup launched in 2021, aims to simplify this process by offering an online platform where users can book flights, hotels, tours, and train tickets, and pay with local bank cards.

Since its launch, Tapatrip has become a major player in the market, now handling 90% of Mongolia's train ticket sales and expanding its services to include scooter rentals in Ulaanbaatar. While the app has made travel more convenient, challenges remain due to the country's limited infrastructure. The company plans to expand globally, with aspirations to become Mongolia's first unicorn startup.

Navigating Mongolia can be tricky. That might now be changing

I think when most people come to Mongolia, they're surprised at how big and how far away and how sometimes hard it is to reach these places that are very quote-unquote famous. Traveling across this vast country isn't easy, and writer Brianna Wilson knows that well. She first arrived in Mongolia in 2018 and has since been documenting its hidden corners and unique challenges on social media. One of those is transport. I still had to go to the train station, purchase a ticket in person. You had to do a lot of that by going to a ticket agency and buying a ticket directly from the airline counter. Most people who come here, they're asking me basic questions. How do I get a taxi? Book a train ticket. Today, she's trying out Tapa Trip for the first time, Mongolia's answer to booking.com or Expedia, the online booking platform launched in 2021 in a bid to transform the way Mongolians and tourists explore the country. For the first time in Mongolia, Tapa Trip says, the app lets users book flights, hotels, tours and train tickets all in one place. It also accepts local bank cards, previously a barrier for many Mongolians on other booking platforms. But I do think it is helpful, especially for foreigners and even locals who want to see more of their country. Today, Tapa Trip says 90% of Mongolia's train tickets are bought on their platform. The startup also rolled out a fleet of scooters for rent across Ulaanbaatar. CEO Iden Shemeg Devasuddin is taking us for a ride on one through the capital. Four years since launching, she says the biggest challenge has been changing consumer behavior. The beginning two years was quite challenging since it's like the online platform, all the services were so traditional, making people used to do something through online is quite challenging. They really wanted to have like face-to-face contact, but nowadays behavior or the point of view was totally different. Shehar plans to expand operations globally. And she hopes it'll go on to become Mongolia's first startup valued at over a billion dollars. We want to become like a unicorn, right? So also we wanted to go worldwide. For Brianna, it's a start, but she says there's still some way to go in Mongolia. The infrastructure in general is still too limited, so Capitrip can only grow so much and these apps can only grow so much until, you know, either the train lines expand or we get more domestic flight. Laying the groundwork through digital innovation, a blueprint for a more accessible Mongolia. It's not a very groundbreaking concept, but it does add a lot of ease into traveling here and that is worth a lot. That's the value of Mongolia. Learn more at capitrip.com

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