In an effort to allure more European tourists, the prime minister has agreed to continue extending visa exemption for citizens from five European nations which are Vietnam’s strategic partners.
Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has agreed to proposals to continue extending the visa exemption policy for three more years, from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020, for citizens of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. Currently, the policy will expire in a year. This takes effect from 01.07.2018.
Visa policy is considered as a bottleneck to the tourism industry because Vietnam is a country with strict visa policies, only visa-free for citizens of 24 countries, much less than other countries in the region.
Western Europe is considered a high-paying group. In the first visa-free year (2015), 720 thousand western guests came to Vietnam. In 2016, the number of visitors increased 16%, turnover reached 202 million.
In 2017, Western European visitors were 1.5 million people, contributing to the record of the tourism Vietnam. This was the first time our country welcomed 12.9 million international visitors.