Visa-free boost for Vietnam travel

HANOI  Vietnam National Administration of Tourism expects tourist arrivals from five western European countries to increase by 50% in the next three years, all because it offering visa-free travel.
VNAT bases its optimism on the new visa exemptions that kicked in last month for citizens of the five nations.
However, the visa-free facility is in place for just one year and to reach the targeted increase it will need to be extended.
Residents of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain no longer require a visa to travel to Vietnam for stays of 14 days. The decision came into effect on 1 July this year and will remain effective until 30 June 2016.
inside no 3VNAT director, Nguyen Van Tuan, told local media that annually, some 700,000 western European nationals visit Vietnam, while about 150,000 Vietnamese visit these five countries.

“The figures fall short of the potential, which is why Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung agreed to grant visa exemptions for these five countries to lure more tourists to Vietnam.”
The administration is hoping the visa exemption and a tourism stimulus programme will attract 1.1 million arrivals from these markets in the next three years, up 50% from 2015, he said.
Vietnam Tourism Association deputy chairman, Vu The Binh, said the administration and the association must develop new tourism products for tourists from the five western European countries.
But critics says the visa-free exemption should be valid for much longer than 14 days as most tourists from Europe when visiting a destination in Asia would want to stay for 21 to 30 days.
The high cost of touring Vietnam is another negative factor. Prices need to be cut by 20% to 30%, he said.
“The country should also improve the quality of its promotional activities at the two leading tourism fairs in the world, WTM in the UK this year and ITB Berlin 2016, and organise some road shows in the five countries,” he said.

sourced:ttrweekly.com