Viet Nam nears this year’s int’l tourist target
VGP - Viet Nam welcomed more than 7.8 million international visitors in the first eight months of 2023, equivalent to 97.5 per cent of the year’s target, according to the latest report from the General Statistics Office.
The figure is 5.4 times more than that of 2022, but still only reaches 69.2 per cent of the level seen in the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic happened.
August alone saw over 1.2 million foreign arrivals, up 17.2 percent against the previous month and 2.5 times higher than the same period last year.
Among the 7.8 million tourists, 6.9 million came by air (87.6 percent), 909,700 by road (11.6 percent), and 59,700 by sea (0.8 percent).
During January-August, South Korea was the largest tourist source market of Viet Nam with 2.27 million visitors, followed by China with 950,000.
Other top source markets included Chinese Taipei, Japan, the U.S., Cambodia, Thailand, Australia and Malaysia.
New visa policy gives very strong push to tourism industry
Viet Nam's new visa policy is more favorable, which would give a very strong push to the tourism industry when the peak season of international tourism at the end of the year is coming, said Hoang Nhan Chinh, Secretariat Director of the Viet Nam Tourism Advisory Board (TAB).
The new policy would help the tourism sector diversify markets, increase the number of visitors to Viet Nam, prolong their stays, and increase their spending.
In addition, this policy will help raise the number of air passengers, facilitate international trade exchanges, and attract more foreign investors to the country, Hoang stressed.
On June 24, the Vietnamese National Assembly approved the Law on amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Law on the Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, as well as the Law on Foreigners' Entry into, Exit from, Transit through, and Residence in Viet Nam.
Accordingly, onced granted an e-visa, a foreigner can enter and exit an unlimited number of times within 90 days, without having to go through procedures for obtaining a new visa.
Citizens of 13 countries that are unilaterally exempted from visas by Viet Nam shall be allowed for temporary residence for 45 days (up from 15 days) and can be considered for visa issuance and temporary residence extension according to regulations.
Viet Nam decided to issue e-visas to all foreign arrivals at 52 ports of entry from August 15, according to its Resolution No. 127/NQ-CP dated August 14, 2023./.
