Open visa policies have contributed to attracting a large number of tourists to Viet Nam and generating a driving force for tourism to become a spearhead for development.
Statistics showed that as of May 30, the pilot plan on electronic visa system for foreign tourists visiting Viet Nam has been implemented nearly four months, over 22,000 foreigners applied for e-visas. They chiefly came from the U.S., the UK, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia as well as Japan.
Viet Nam granted e-visas for 21,000 foreigners of whom 12,000 entered the country.
The control work of foreigners on e-visas was conducted at airports and land border gates in line with regulations,
Permanent Vice Chairman of the Viet Nam Tourism Association Vu The Binh was quoted as saying that e-visa expansion has become a general trend in the world. Other tourism competitors also offer flexible entry e-visa regulations.
Thailand, for example, has offered e-visas for citizens from 61 countries and territories. Malaysia has provided e-visas for citizens from 155 countries and territories. Singapore and Indonesia granted e-visas for citizens from 158 and 169 countries and territories, respectively. Meanwhile, Viet Nam only applied the regulation for 22 countries.
Viet Nam will continue to provide free visas for citizens of five countries, namely the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy. Thanks to the policy, the number of European guests to Viet Nam has surged sharply since July, 2015, reaching 240,000 in Q1, 2017, which jumped 12% against the same period in 2016.
Earlier, the Vietnamese Government on June 3 decided to extend free visas for nationals from five Western European countries as the deadline would expire on June 30, 2017./.
VGP News