VNAT recommends visa exemption

HANOI  Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has recommended that the government waive tourist visa requirements for member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (SNG), eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
CIS is made up of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The status of Ukraine in the group is not clear. (In Russian, the group is known as Sodruzhestvo Nezavisimykh Gosudarstv:SNG).
VNAT’s International Cooperation Department head, Dinh Ngoc Duc, told the Vietnam Investment Review that besides well-established political and economic relations with Vietnam, these countries already have direct flights to Vietnam, making it easier for visitors to visit the country.
“Vietnam could potentially attract more tourists from these countries once visas are abolished.”
inside no 4Starting 1 July, citizens from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Belarus were granted visa exemption to visit Vietnam for up to 15 days.
The waiver applies for one year for the first five countries, but there were indicators that Vietnam might extend it once there was convincing data that it benefitted the country’s economy and the tourism industry.
For Belarus, the policy will be effective for five years up to 2020.
Vietnam also offers visa-free travel to seven other countries; Japan, South Korea, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia.
It also has a visa-free policy for nine ASEAN countries; Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
Vietnam authorities are studying ways to reverse a negative trend in tourist arrivals that has seen the country suffer declines for around 14 months. One of the factors identified was inconvenience of visa procedures.
For January to June this year, the country welcomed 3,804,636 international tourists down 11.3% over the same period last year.

sourced:ttrweekly.com