Golden opportunity to accelerate tourism

The more open the visa, the faster tourism will recover

In the parliament, most National Assembly deputies expressed their agreement with the Ministry of Public Security 's proposal on the urgent need to change visa policy, extend the time limit for granting temporary residence certificates and electronic visas for international visitors.

International tourists arrive at Cam Ranh airport ( Khanh Hoa )

In a recent dispatch sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Tourism Advisory Board (TAB) affirmed that this is the decisive factor in the competitiveness of Vietnamese tourism. According to TAB, Vietnam is the first country in Southeast Asia to reopen international tourism activities, but the recovery rate of international tourism is much slower than that of regional competitors such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The main reason is the inadequacies in visa policy.

The World Tourism Organization estimates that a liberal visa policy can increase the number of international tourists by 5-25% each year. Vietnam has also witnessed this when it first exempted visas for 5 Western European countries. Many countries in the ASEAN region have used visa facilitation policies to attract international visitors, such as Thailand exempting tourist visas for citizens of 64 countries and territories, Indonesia with 70 countries, and the Philippines with 157 countries. Meanwhile, Vietnam has only exempted visas for 24 countries in a unilateral and bilateral manner. Currently, the visa policies of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are even more open than Vietnam before the Covid-19 pandemic and they are continuing to implement many flexible policies to attract more visitors and longer stays.

TAB proposed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in addition to continuing to implement the unilateral visa exemption policy for the group of 13 countries that have been unilaterally exempted from visas, add 33 more countries to the unilateral visa exemption, including the remaining 20 countries in the European Union (coinciding with the previous proposal of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). According to TAB's study on the impact of visa exemption for 5 Nordic countries, the average number of international visitors from the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy increased by nearly 20%.

List of countries TAB proposes visa exemption

- The remaining 20 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.

- 5 other countries: USA, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland.

- 8 countries are unilaterally exempted from visa: Israel, South Africa, Türkiye, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE.

- In addition, TAB recommends that the Government consider four countries and territories as tourism markets with strong development potential, including: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and India.

"Compared to other ASEAN countries, the impact of Vietnam 's unilateral visa exemption is more positive, increasing the number of international tourists, and tourism revenue increases many times higher than the decrease in revenue due to visa exemption," TAB emphasized.

Responding to Thanh Nien , Dr. Luong Hoai Nam, a member of TAB, affirmed that the proposals of the ministries on expanding the application of electronic visas (eVisa) and extending the validity of eVisas from 30 days to 90 days, expanding the list of countries exempted from unilateral visas, and extending the length of stay of visa-exempt visitors from 15 days to 45 days are very timely and necessary. Not only that, it is necessary to consider perfecting our country's visa policy in a number of other directions to increase visa openness.

For example, Vietnamese citizens have been granted long-term visas to many countries, for example, 1-year visas for the US, 2-5 year visas for the Schengen area, 3-year visas for Australia, 5-year visas for Korea, 10-year visas for Canada... all on a unilateral basis. Vietnam should also grant similar long-term visas to citizens of some countries, not in bulk, but according to each visa application. Similarly, Vietnamese people who buy real estate in many countries are granted permanent residence cards (also long-term visas) for the whole family. We also need similar policies to encourage foreigners to buy real estate in Vietnam and visit Vietnam multiple times each year.

In addition, visitors to Vietnam to participate in MICE events (a type of tourism combining conferences, seminars, exhibitions, event organization, corporate incentive travel for employees, partners, etc.), golf tournaments, etc. should be exempted from visas. Because the event usually has participants from many countries and foreign organizers often choose to organize in countries with the most open visa policies to reduce the hassle of applying for visas for event participants, etc.

"The visa on arrival procedure should continue to be improved in the direction of not requiring prior approval, but visitors can go to the border gate to apply and be granted directly, with fees that may be higher than other types of visas. Finally, the communication of our country's visa policy needs to be done better, stronger, through many channels, especially through our country's diplomatic agencies abroad," emphasized Dr. Luong Hoai Nam.

Tourists at Hanoi night market food court

Vietnam 's openness attracts wealthy consumers

"Never before has the name Vietnam been as close to world tourists as it is now. Almost every week we have a destination, a hotel, a construction, a business or a dish in the top of the continental and world lists, voted by prestigious international news agencies. We are a favorite destination of the two largest markets in the world, India and China. People from distant markets such as Europe and the US, after coming to Vietnam, all have good impressions and vote for us in the polls. The tourism industry is looking forward to the Government and ministries and sectors joining hands to create favorable conditions, promote cooperation, and create more unique and attractive products. If we can do that, Vietnam's tourism in the coming period will certainly rebound very quickly," a leader of the General Department of Tourism said.

Pulling yachts to bring "big customers" to Vietnam

Cruise passengers typically travel in large groups. If a group of passengers traveling by air, chartering a full flight, can only carry a maximum of about 200 passengers, a ship can carry 2,500 - 3,000 passengers. Combined with sailors and crew, each ship docking can add 5,000 - 6,000 more people to the list of international visitors to Vietnam . With thousands of high-class tourists willing to pay up to 250,000 USD for a cruise of several months, each ship docking is an opportunity for destinations to increase revenue and revive the tourism industry. However, in reality, Vietnam 's capacity to receive cruise passengers is still very limited, primarily due to visa issues. Also because of the large number of passengers on each ship, visa approval is very difficult. Removing visa barriers will be a great opportunity for Vietnam to increase its reception of cruise passengers.

Mr. Vo Viet Hoa (Director of Inbound Division, Saigontourist Travel Service Company)

Need special visa policy for the "super rich"

We should also easily grant long-term visas to the elderly who come to Vietnam to retire, and those who work remotely in the technology sector. In particular, Vietnam has many advantages in developing high-end tourism such as golf tourism, luxury yachts, etc. To truly exploit these areas, tourists entering Vietnam by private planes, business jets from Vietnam and abroad also need to be exempted from visas (according to the passenger list of the flight). They are often millionaires and billionaires, so we need to encourage them to come here to travel and seek investment opportunities.

Dr. Luong Hoai Nam (TAB member)

In recent years, foreign press has continuously given praise to Vietnam's tourism industry in all aspects. We have airlines listed as the best in the world; "won" the award for Asia's top destination; have a series of destinations with nearly 30 hotels, resorts and many travel and tourism companies winning first place in categories in the "Oscars of the tourism industry" - World Travel Awards (WTA) in the Asia - Oceania region...

Mr. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of the Inter-Pacific Group (IPPG), analyzed that not only does Vietnam possess potential for scenic beauty, it is also increasingly attractive to global luxury consumers. "The prestigious fashion news site Fashion United even compared Vietnam to the US, stating that although the US is currently leading in luxury goods sales with annual revenue of up to

75 billion USD. But Vietnam 's expansion is attracting wealthy consumers and emerging as a potential center for famous luxury brands," Mr. Hanh cited.

Calling this an unprecedented "golden opportunity" in Vietnam , "king of luxury goods" Johnathan Hanh Nguyen said that for many years, the Vietnamese tourism industry has faced a situation where many visitors come but stay for a short time and spend little because of a lack of focus on commercial services and no place for tourists to spend money. IPPG has negotiated with suppliers to achieve a selling price equal to that in France, in Singapore and lower than in China; Globally famous brands and the "rich" in the world have also increasingly paid attention to Vietnam .

Airlines also wait for visas to "take off"

Considered as one of the two wings of an airplane, the aviation industry is also waiting for tourism to untie the visa knot to take off together. If 2019 was the peak year, the tourism industry welcomed 18 million visitors, the aviation industry also transported about 40 million international passengers, of which the number of tourists accounted for about 70%.

Consider extending visa exemption period

In the National Assembly session on the afternoon of June 2, giving comments on the draft law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens and the Law on Entry, Exit, Transit and Residence of Foreigners in Vietnam , delegate Vu Tien Loc (Hanoi delegation), Chairman of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center, shared: "As someone working in the field of foreign affairs, in trade and investment promotion, what has been troubling us over the past time is that in every meeting with the foreign business community, there are opinions about visa issues and visa procedures in Vietnam ."

According to him, Vietnam is a country with great potential for tourism, a leading destination for attracting international investment, but in reality it is "ahead of the curve, behind in reopening tourism", partly because the visa policy is not open. Expecting that the two bills on entry and exit with new, more open regulations... will promote trade and investment promotion, promote tourism, Mr. Loc said that "this is probably the top gift and a very important message for the integration process, opening up to invite and attract foreigners to Vietnam ".

However, Deputy Loc also said that the regulation on increasing the time limit for granting visa certificates at the border gate for people entering under unilateral visa exemption from 15 to 45 days "is still not enough". The reason is that the 45-day level is the average level applied by countries in the region. Vietnam sets the standard of reaching the top of ASEAN in all fields, so it must be increased to 60 days to reach the advanced level in ASEAN.

Delegate Nguyen Hai Anh (Dong Thap delegation) cited that in 2015, Indonesia exempted visas for 169 countries for 30 days, increasing the number of international visitors to the country by more than 24%, creating more than 400,000 jobs. He suggested that the Government expand the list of citizens of countries that are unilaterally exempted from visas to facilitate attracting tourists while still ensuring national security and defense.

According to Deputy Nguyen Tam Hung (Ba Ria-Vung Tau delegation), the number of countries exempted from visas by Vietnam is only 5-15% of ASEAN countries. The adjustment of temporary residence time for foreigners in Vietnam has not increased as much as in other countries in the region. Therefore, the drafting committee is requested to consider increasing the visa exemption time and extending temporary residence for foreigners.

Mai Ha - Le Hiep

A representative of the Civil Aviation Authority said that in 2023, aviation aims to serve 34 million international passengers, about 80% compared to 2019. By the end of April, the total number of international passengers had reached 9.7 million, equivalent to over 70% of the same period in 2019. It is expected that by the end of the third quarter, the recovery rate will reach about 90%. "However, these are expected numbers, whether or not they are achieved depends largely on the number of international visitors to Vietnam and visa opening is an important bottleneck," said a representative of the Civil Aviation Authority.

Vietnam Airlines Deputy General Director of Commerce Trinh Ngoc Thanh affirmed that the recovery goal of the aviation industry depends largely on the openness of visa policies. "Countries with visa exemptions and direct flights will see the number of passengers double within 3 years, not just an average increase of 5-10%. In addition, Vietnam needs a national tourism promotion program with continuous tourism promotion and advertising programs in the coming time," Mr. Thanh suggested.

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