Viet Nam pursues most favorable entry-exit policies in Southeast Asia

Spokesperson Le made the remark at the ministry’s regular press conference in Ha Noi on August 11. 

Several countries are yet to open their doors and continue limiting travel, some of which are major tourism source markets of Viet Nam amid the complicated and uncertain developments of the COVID-19 pandemic with new, more virulent and transmissible variants as well as the emergence of new epidemics like monkeypox.

As the global economy continues to struggle from the pandemic, international tourism has not yet fully recovered, and Viet Nam is not an exception.

Viet Nam has promoted the mutual recognition of 'vaccine passports' and the signing of international treaties on entry-exit. The Southeast Asian nation was one of the first countries to resume entry-exit policy via visa granting and waivers on March 15, 2022 following the Prime Minister’s directions to accelerate the tourism recovery in the new situation.

Hence, Viet Nam is one of the Southeast Asian countries with the most favorable entry-exit policies in the post-pandemic period, she added.  

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue working with the Ministry of Public Security and competent agencies to facilitate travel of Vietnamese and foreign citizens, said Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang.

The government allowed quarantine-free entry and resumed its pre-pandemic visa exemption policy for 24 tourism markets from mid-March to seek tourism recovery after two years of border closures.

Viet Nam welcomed 954,000 international tourists in the first seven months of 2022, a nine-fold increase from the same period last year. The RoK sent the largest number of visitors to Viet Nam, 196,000, followed by the U.S. (102,900), Cambodia (60,400), China (53,000) and Singapore (50,500), according to the General Statistics Office./.