Vietnam should grant visa exemption to more countries and allow a stay of up to 30 days to increase foreign tourist numbers and their local spending, experts say.
Tran
Dinh Thien, a member of the prime minister's economic advisory group, said at a
tourism conference in the northern province of Quang Ninh that now "was
the opportunity we need to take advantage of to open tourism wider and affirm
Vietnam's position on the global tourism map."
The government had agreed last week to resume its unilateral visa exemption policy for citizens from 13 countries as Vietnam reopened inbound tourism after nearly two years of closure. Citizens from Belarus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K. will be allowed to visit Vietnam for up to 15 days without a visa regardless of passport type and entry purpose.
Thien
said that though Vietnam has fully reopened its borders, the tourism industry
can only welcome 25-30 percent of tourists against pre-pandemic levels.
Therefore, the government should expand its visa exemption policy to include
more countries like Australia and New Zealand.
"Vietnam
should also consider prolonging the stay of tourists from European countries
from the current 15 days because Westerners tend to make longer trips,
especially retirees. Therefore, the 15-day visa exemption is not enough to
attract them," Thien said.
Pham
Thi Nguyet of Vietnam Airlines said the visa exemption with stay of up to 30
days will boost opportunities to attract international visitors to Vietnam,
especially from Europe.
Currently,
only citizens of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and
Kyrgyzstan are offered visa-free stay of 30 days. But most Asian tourists
typically make short trips of four to five days, industry insiders say.
Pham
Truong Hoang, who teaches hotel management and tourism at the National
Economics University, said it was high time that Vietnam relaxed policies to
attract more foreign tourists through expanded visa exemption, instead of
remained focused on pre-pandemic markets.
Before
the pandemic, Vietnam had among the strictest visa policies in Asia with only
24 countries qualifying for exemption, compared to Thailand's 64, Indonesia's
70, and the Philippines' 157.
Tran
Nguyen, sales director of hospitality company and property developer Sun Group,
also felt that the government should relax its visa exemption policy and
include more potential tourism markets like New Zealand and Australia.
Nguyen
Thi Le Huong, deputy general director of tour operator Vietravel, proposed the
scrapping of Covid-19 tests for fully vaccinated foreign tourists arriving in
Vietnam.
Though
Vietnam has reopened international tourism with relaxed entry rules, it still
requires foreign visitors to furnish negative Covid-19 test results on arrival.
Vnexpress.net
