Nguyen Van Tuan is the boss of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). He told reporters the reason the visa exemption was being extended by 12 months was that tourist arrivals from the five countries had risen dramatically.
The VNAT director explained that since visa-free entry was introduced for British, French, German, Italian and Spanish nationals last July arrivals had increased by around 20 per cent for each nationality. He added that people from these countries spent well and contributed to the Vietnamese economy.
Nguyen Van Tuan finished off by saying it was logical to encourage people from these European countries to visit Vietnam by continuing to offer free visas. Nationals of the five European nations are granted stays of 15 days when they land in Vietnam.
The five European nations currently exempted from applying for Vietnamese visas before travel are among a list of just over twenty. Passport-holders of ASEAN bloc countries plus the likes of Kyrgyzstan and the Scandinavian-zone nations get free visas on arrival. The validity of the permission to stay varies with each nationality.
Vietnam adds another year of free visas for European tourists
News in Asia
Vietnam’s tourism bureau says the country plans to extend its free visa initiative for certain European tourists for another year. The current year-long scheme of giving visa exempt entry to Vietnam for nationals of five European nations was due to expire on 30 June 2016.