Vietnamese tourism anxiously awaits news of visa exemption

Travel companies are worried about the unclear visa exemption policy.

In just over a month (June 30), the visa exemption policy for citizens of five Western European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, will expire after one year of implementation. But so far, there has been no clear answer from the authorities on whether this policy will continue or not.

This is causing confusion for tourism businesses and causing great damage to Vietnam.

Don't know what to say to your partner

Referring to the above issue, General Director of Vietravel Nguyen Quoc Ky informed that recently, thanks to the visa exemption policy, attracting tourists from five Western European countries has been very good. At Vietravel alone, in the first three months of this year, the number of tourists from these countries was equal to the whole of 2015. Sadly, the current unclear information has caused confusion among businesses.

“If the visa exemption ends, all the efforts and money we have spent on promotion and marketing over the past time will be wasted. Moreover, foreign partners will lose confidence not only in the company but also in the Vietnamese tourism industry. While countries next to Vietnam create favorable conditions for tourists to enter the country and continue to expand visa exemptions, our policy is still unstable, so Vietnamese tourism will continue to lose in the competition with other countries,” Mr. Ky emphasized.

Simplifying immigration procedures is a common trend in the world. In the photo: Foreign tourists coming to Vietnam.

Analyzing this issue further, Ms. Uyen Phuong, in charge of foreign customers at Saigontourist, said that recently international travel companies have been asking whether Vietnam's visa exemption will continue or stop after June 30. Faced with this question, Vietnamese travel companies do not know how to answer.

“The reason foreign partners are so interested in visas is to plan to bring tourists to Vietnam. For Western European countries, their tourism year starts from October this year to September next year, so the preparation of programs, products, prices, etc. must be done thoroughly, ending before the second quarter of each year. That is why April and May are the times when they need to know the visa exemption policy and tourism development policy of the destinations,” Ms. Phuong explained.

According to Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Hotel Association, Tao Van Nghe, many Vietnamese travel companies are going through a rather tragic period, mainly due to difficulties in tourism in the Central region. For example, in Quang Binh, there is a resort with 354 rooms, but only 15 rooms have guests.

"In this situation, the State should support businesses. It would be a pity if visas were tightened," said Mr. Nghe.

Need stable policy

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has just made an assessment that after implementing visa exemption for the Republic of Belarus and five Western European countries, the number of visitors from these markets has increased continuously. The total number of tourists from the five countries exempted from entry visas in the nine months reached 554,242, an increase of 13.91% compared to the same period in 2014 and 2015; the total additional revenue from the number of tourists from the five Western European countries is estimated at more than 171 million USD.

Thus, if the visa exemption policy is suddenly stopped, it will cause great damage to Vietnam. Not only that, the visa exemption policy for citizens of Western European countries is only for one year (from July 1, 2015). This is a challenge for state management agencies, travel companies and tourists during the implementation process. The reason is that short-term visa exemption mainly attracts individual travelers, while companies organizing large groups of tourists are still hesitant, waiting for Vietnam's long-term, stable policy.

In particular, a one-year short-term visa exemption is not enough to truly support businesses. Because companies' business plans often follow a medium-term strategy of 3-5 years or a long-term strategy of over five years. Tourism promotion and advertising activities themselves need to be at least six months to a year in advance to reach tourists.

“Therefore, if citizens of five Western European countries continue to be exempted from visas and have their stay periods extended, it will be favorable for the development of Vietnamese tourism. We hope that the Government will issue a long-term and stable visa policy so that businesses can feel secure in their investments. Don’t invest this year but not know what will happen next year,” a representative of a travel company suggested.

In response to the businesses’ recommendations, Mr. La Quoc Khanh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Tourism, said he agreed with the businesses’ viewpoints. He also said that continuing to exempt visas for five Western European countries and extending the visa exemption period… is necessary. Only then can we increase the attractiveness of Vietnamese tourism.

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