Proposal to exempt visa for international visitors on package tours

Foreign visitors to Vietnam under package tours of international travel companies may be exempt from visas in the near future.

This is the information given by General Director of the General Department of Tourism Nguyen Van Tuan at the conference summarizing tourism activities in the first 3 months of the year on April 12.

Visas are used by many countries as a tool to increase competitiveness in attracting international tourists. Many countries in the region such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand have expanded their visa exemptions. Indonesia recently exempted visas for citizens of 79 countries at the same time, bringing the total number of exempted countries to 169.

According to Mr. Tuan, this is an irreversible trend and the General Department of Tourism will persistently propose extending the visa exemption policy for citizens of five Western European countries, which will expire on July 1.

Vietnam currently exempts visas for 22 countries. Photo: Giang Huy.

In addition, the agency has also proposed unilateral visa exemption for tourists from 13 countries traveling on package tours organized by international travel companies in Vietnam. If approved, Mr. Tuan said that this would not only increase the number of tourists in key markets but also attach management responsibility when welcoming tourists to Vietnam to travel companies.

Previously, Vietnam unilaterally exempted visas for tourists from five countries: Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain from July 1 to June 30, 2016. Citizens of these countries do not need to apply for a visa when entering Vietnam for a temporary stay of 15 days. This policy has been effective since its implementation, with the number of visitors from the five visa-exempt countries increasing every quarter.

In the first quarter of 2016 alone, the number of visitors to Italy increased by 28%, Spain by 27%, the UK by 23%, Germany by 19% and France by 11%. As a result, the number of international visitors in the past 3 months reached more than 2.4 million, an increase of nearly 20% over the same period.

According to VNE