Vietnam considers exempting more countries from tourist visas to boost growth

HANOI, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's government is planning to waive tourist visa requirements for more countries and permit an extended length of stay for international travelers as the country looks to stimulate tourism to boost economic growth, local media reported on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asia country is also considering expanding the list of countries eligible for electronic visas, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said at a conference on tourism recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam already waives visa requirements for tourists from 25 countries and also grants a one-month single-entry e-visa to visitors from 80 countries.

Currently, only tourists from Chile and Panama are granted a 90-day visa waiver, while citizens from most ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries are offered a stay of 30 days without a tourist visa.

The visa waiver proposals are part of the government's stimulus measures to pave the way for its tourism sector to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

The industry accounted for 9.2 percent of the country's annual gross domestic product in 2019, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, with a record 18 million international arrivals and 720 trillion Vietnamese dong (30.2 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue.

Between January and February this year, the country gained 3.6 billion dollars in revenue from 1.8 million foreign arrivals.

Vietnam is targeting to earn 27.3 billion dollars in tourism revenue this year, equivalent to 90.3 percent of pre-pandemic levels.