Representatives of tourism businesses welcoming international visitors all affirmed that this is a long-awaited policy because it will create a breakthrough for tourism with long-stay guests.
Specifically, according to the new visa policy, the validity of electronic visas (e-visas) will be extended from 30 days to 90 days, valid for multiple entries; the temporary residence period at the border gate for people entering under unilateral visa exemption will be extended from 15 days to 45 days.
Mr. Lai Van Quan, Director of Focus Tours Co., Ltd., said: “In the short term, this new visa policy will have an immediate impact on the flow of individual tourists and backpackers due to flexible time and a preference for experiential tourism. In the long term, this policy is aimed at tourists who are on vacation, avoiding the winter of European countries and Russia, who often have long holidays at the end of the year.”
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Chairman of Rustic Hospitality Group, said: "Since the information about the new visa policy was announced, the unit has informed this information to partners and designed additional accommodation products to increase the duration from 15 days to 20-25 days. In addition, the unit also diversified products based on e-visas with multiple entries valid for 90 days. Accordingly, guests can travel to Vietnam from the North, through Laos, to Cambodia and return to continue traveling to the Mekong Delta, Ho Chi Minh City".
“The new visa policy creates confidence for tourism businesses to invest in infrastructure, human resources to create new products, and improve service quality to attract customers. Combined with good promotion and attraction, the number of international visitors is expected to increase by about 20-30%, but more importantly, it is possible to exploit the flow of long-stay guests, increasing business efficiency,” Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Bich shared.
According to Mr. Vu The Binh, Chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association, the implementation of the new visa policy is a big step forward in removing bottlenecks for Vietnam tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. The current problem is that tourism businesses create suitable products and promote information to international tourists to know about this new policy so that they can proactively plan their trips to Vietnam.
Statistics from the National Tourism Administration show that the rate of searching for information about Vietnam tourism in some European markets is continuously increasing. Vietnam is in the top of the world in terms of searches, from 11th to 6th place currently. Vietnam is also the only destination in Southeast Asia in this group. Accordingly, Vietnam has a growth rate in the 10% -25% group, ranking 6th in the world, much higher than the general growth rate of the Southeast Asian region.
The international tourist markets most interested in Vietnam tourism include the US, Japan, Australia, India, South Korea, Singapore, the UK, Malaysia, Germany and France. These are also key markets for Vietnam tourism.
To synchronously implement policies to attract international visitors, on August 15, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held a conference to disseminate new documents to accelerate the recovery and develop Vietnam's tourism effectively and sustainably. In particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, together with provinces and cities, and tourism units, deployed an action plan to implement Resolution 82; disseminated the Vietnam tourism marketing strategy to 2030; disseminated the project to build a number of models for developing night tourism products...
Speaking to Tin Tuc newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Van Lanh, Vice Chairman of Hoi An City People's Committee (Quang Nam) said: Since the beginning of the year, Hoi An has attracted more than 1.9 million international visitors, of which about 1.5 million are international visitors. Notably, international visitors to Hoi An mainly come in small groups and families. Currently, tourism in Hoi An has recovered about 60%. Therefore, the new visa policy applied from August 15 creates an opportunity for Hoi An tourism to attract long-term visitors, increasing the experience.
"Service establishments in Hoi An have also invested in improving service quality, aiming for in-depth and sustainable development. We expect that by the end of this year, Hoi An tourism will fully recover and accelerate development from 2024," Mr. Nguyen Van Lanh shared.
“With the synchronous implementation of policies to attract tourists from the central to local levels and tourism businesses, including the new visa policy, it is expected that Vietnamese tourism will have breakthroughs at the end of 2023 and accelerate development in 2024,” said Mr. Ha Van Sieu, Deputy Director of the National Tourism Administration.
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