Proposal to extend visa exemption period for Russian tourists

Information from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on July 24 said: The Ministry has sent an official dispatch to the Prime Minister requesting consideration of adjusting visa policies for the tourist market from the Russian Federation.

Visa exemption will attract more tourists to Vietnam. Illustration photo: TNO

Accordingly, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed that the Prime Minister consider extending the visa exemption period from the current 15 days to 30 days for tourists from countries that have unilaterally exempted visas, first of all for tourists from the Russian market. This is a necessary step to create more favorable conditions for Russian tourists to travel to Vietnam more, stay longer, spend more, contributing to improving the efficiency of tourism activities.

In the current context, tourists from China in general and from Chinese-speaking markets in particular have decreased, leading to a decrease in total revenue from tourists. In this situation, the tourism industry is focusing resources to increase the attraction of tourists from other markets with large sources of visitors, longer stay needs, and higher spending. In the current period, the tourist market from Russia, a country with a comprehensive strategic partnership with Vietnam, is the top priority market group. In fact, international tourists, especially those from the Russian market, have contributed to changing the face of many lands such as Khanh Hoa, Phan Thiet, etc.

In order to attract international tourists, based on the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Prime Minister decided to unilaterally exempt visas for citizens of 7 countries (for a period of 15 days): Japan, South Korea (in 2004), 4 Nordic countries including Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden (in 2005) and Russia (in 2009). In addition, Vietnam has exempted visas on a bilateral basis for citizens of 9 ASEAN countries (maximum 30 days).

The visa exemption policy has received positive responses from tourists and governments of visa-exempt countries, contributing to encouraging more visitors from these markets to visit our country. Especially countries with large tourist sources, potential for Vietnam tourism, major trade and investment partners such as Japan, Korea, Russia, ASEAN countries... The number of visitors from these countries continues to increase strongly and accounts for a large proportion of the total number of visitors, as well as revenue from visitors' spending.

According to the survey and investigation of the General Statistics Office and the General Department of Tourism, the average spending of a Korean tourist in Vietnam is up to 1,200 USD, Japanese tourists is 1,500 USD, Russian tourists is 2,500 USD, higher than the average of 1,143 USD (according to the survey data of average spending of an international visitor in Vietnam in 2013 announced by the General Statistics Office). Thus, in 2013, the three markets of Russia, Korea and Japan alone had more than 1.65 million visitors to Vietnam, with a total spending of nearly 2.55 billion USD. The budget contribution from VAT of tourists from these three markets alone was 200 million USD.

For the Russian market, in the period 2009-2013: Russian tourists to Vietnam increased 6.8 times, from more than 49,000 in 2009 (visa exemption period) to more than 298,000 in 2013, reaching an average growth rate of 58.53%/year. In the first 6 months of 2014, Russian tourists to Vietnam continued to maintain strong growth, reaching nearly 194,000, an increase of 25.9% over the same period in 2013. In the coming years, this trend will continue with a high growth rate and is expected to reach 1 million visitors in 2017.

According to Tintuc