Vietnam extends visa exemption policy

Tourists from Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK to Vietnam have increased thanks to the visa exemption policy

According to Resolution No 56/NQ-CP approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on June 30, 2016, tourists from the five above-mentioned countries will be exempted from visas for a fortnight stay in Vietnam, regardless of their passports and immigration purposes.

The visa exemption policy has yielded positive results over the past one year of implementation from July 1, 2015 till June 30, 2016. Especially, the first half of 2016 saw a 20 percent increase in the number of tourists from all these countries, which was something desirable for such tourism markets, said General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan.

The extension, which was good news for domestic travel companies and tourists from the five countries, reflected the Vietnamese government’s determination to improve the tourism sector’s competitiveness and make Vietnam become a popular destination for international tourists. According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, among these five countries, Italy recorded the highest increase in the number of tourists to Vietnam in the first haft of 2016, followed by UK (24.6 percent), Spain (23 percent), Germany (17 percent) and France (14 percent).

The first half of 2016 witnessed an increase of some 62,000 tourists from all the five countries over the same period last year, as a result of visa exemption.. More than 4.7 million foreign tourists visited Vietnam in the first half of 2016, a 21.3 percent increase over the same period last year, yielding more than VND200 trillion in tourism revenue.

The Ministry of Public Security was urged to prepare e-visa and visa-on-arrival projects, which are believed to further facilitate visa granting in the near future, said Nguyen Van Tuan.

Dinh Van & Chu An