Proposal to extend Vietnam visa exemption for Western visitors for further 5 years

Proposal to extend Vietnam visa exemption for Western visitors for further 5 years

Hanoi – The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam, yesterday, April 28, 2016 proposed to extend to Vietnam visa exemption for citizens of UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy for further 5 years and extend duration of visa exemption from 15 days to 30 days, in order to attract more tourists from those countries.

The proposal, if approved, will allow citizens of those countries to travel to Vietnam without having to apply for a visa. And stay for a maximum of 30 days.
According to the Ministry, after almost 10 months of implementation of the 15-day visa exemption policy for citizens of Belarus and five nations mentioned, the number of visitors to Vietnam from those markets increased steadily.
Data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam indicated that number of tourists from those countries increased by 4.24%, 16.49% and 20% in the third and fourth quarters of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 respectively.
As reported by the Ministry, the current visa exemption for citizens from these 5 Western countries is valid for only 1 year. It is too short, causing difficulties for State management agencies, travel operators and tourists as well. This short-term policy mainly attracts individual tourists. So we need a longer-term policy to attract more visitors, especially big groups and also assist travel operators.
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