The Government of Vietnam has decided to increase visa exemption for residents of Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain until 2020.
As the Vietnam National Tourism Administration said on Friday, prior to now, residents of 5 Western European countries were exempt from visas for under one 12 months after which needed to apply for an additional one-year extension.
For the primary time, a pilot visa exemption for residents of 5 countries from Vietnam took place in 2015–2016.
In 2015, 720,000 visitors from Western Europe visited Vietnam, roughly 855,000 in 2016 and 1.5 million in 2017.
In the primary 4 months of this 12 months, Vietnam saw over 5.5 million international arrivals, up 29.5 percent year-on-year, with the very best increase in visitors from South Korea at 67.3 percent, followed by Finland ( a rise of 42.2 percent) and China – a rise of 39.7 percent.
Vietnam plans to welcome 16-17 million foreign visitors and 78 million domestic tourists and generate tourism revenue of $27.5 billion in 2018, the administration said.
Source: Xinhua news agency
