Vietnam simplifies visa procedures to attract tourists

International Business News – Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has said that the lack of visa policies has hindered the country’s tourism growth in 2022, asking the authorities to review and revise visa-related policies and to submit draft guidelines to attract international travelers by the end of January.

According to Tuoi Tre, the Vietnamese government office issued the aforementioned request by Pham Minh Chinh, saying that the relevant departments should review, revise and supplement visa-related policies to create convenience for international travelers. Any problems beyond the scope of authority must be reported to the higher level.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Security, together with other relevant departments such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, must improve the procedures for issuing electronic visas at international ports.

Pham Minh Chinh also asked the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, government offices and relevant departments to discuss with enterprises and experts to complete the draft guidelines for attracting international tourists as soon as possible and submit them to him for approval by the end of January.

Pham Minh Chinh pointed out that Vietnam reopened international tourism in March last year, ahead of other Southeast Asian countries. However, Vietnam achieved only 70% of the target of revitalizing international tourism last year, with only about 3.5 million international tourists visiting the country, mainly because Vietnam lacks some groundbreaking policies.

Vietnam’s official conservative view of this year’s international tourism wave, set to receive only 8 million international tourist arrivals, less than half of the number before the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) outbreak. With the unsealing of China on the 8th, it is generally believed that Vietnam’s tourism industry is about to have a bright future.

The newspaper noted that outsiders believe that Vietnam’s current visa policy is far less friendly than that of its other Southeast Asian neighbors, and many foreign travelers have urged Vietnam to relax its visa policy, saying that Vietnam’s current visa policy will lose many repeat visitors.

Nguyen Van Hung, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, recently proposed a number of convenient practices for Vietnam’s visa policy. Among them are proposals to issue e-visas to all countries of origin and to simplify the process of issuing e-visas.