Vietnam extends two years visa exemption for five countries

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, earlier people from European countries have to ask for an additional year of permit as they were exempted from visa only for one year.

Vietnam government has decided on May 4 to extend visa exemption for citizens of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain till 2020.

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, earlier people from European countries have to ask for an additional year of the permit as they were exempted from visa only for one year.

Vietnam first commenced exemption of visas for the five countries in the year 2015-16. As per a report published in Today since 2015 Vietnam is experiencing year-on-year growth in visitors from these countries.

The number of visitors from Western European in 2015 was 720,000 rose to 855,000 in 2016, which further rose to 1.5 million in 2017.

Vietnam has hosted 5.5 million international arrivals with an average annual growth of 29.5 percent, of which South Korea records highest with 67.3 percent growth in arrivals followed by Finland and China with 42.2 percent and 39.7 percent respectively, in just first four months of 2018.

The country’s move to extend visa exemption for citizens of Western European attributes to its hope of earning USD 27.5 billion as tourism revenue in 2018.