HANOI: Vietnam’s new visa policy may help the country to attract 12 million foreign tourists this year, far surpassing the previous target of 8 million, said Secretariat Director of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) Hoang Nhan Chinh.
The Vietnamese National Assembly approved the amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the law on the entry into and exit from the country, including for foreigners.
Upon being granted an e-visa, a foreigner can enter and exit an unlimited number of times within 90 days, without having to go through procedures for obtaining a new visa, reported Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
Citizens of countries that are unilaterally exempted from visas by Vietnam will be granted temporary residence for 45 days (up from 15 days) and can be considered for visa issuance and temporary residence extension according to regulations.
Currently, the e-visa issued by the Immigration Department to foreigners through the electronic transaction system is only valid once. Vietnam is issuing e-visas to citizens of 80 countries.
Chinh affirmed that Vietnam’s new visa policy is more favourable, which will give a very strong push to the tourism industry during the peak season at the end of the year.
However, he noted that Vietnam currently allows citizens of only 80 countries to apply for e-visa to the country, and apply for visa exemption for international visitors from 24 countries, much less than other countries in the region such as Thailand (76), Malaysia (156) and Singapore (162).
Therefore, the list of visa-free countries, if quickly expanded, will create a great opportunity to attract more visitors to Vietnam from the third quarter of this year, he said, adding that the more foreign visitors come, the sooner the country’s tourism will recover fully.
At present, Vietnam is applying the unilateral visa exemption policy to 13 countries, namely Russia, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Belarus, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
The TAB is proposing the government expand the application of this policy to 33 other countries that include the remaining 20 countries of the European Union, and countries with large numbers of visitors to Vietnam, such as the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland, Chinh added.
Vietnam welcomed over 5.57 million foreign tourists in the first six months of 2023, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.-Bernama
