Vietnam Plans to Offer Visa on Arrival

Vietnam is planning to offer of visa on arrival to foreign travelers in order to improve the tourists flow into the country. 

According to Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), the country is planning to issue visas to foreign tourists at border crossings as well as airports, as reported by vietnam.net.

“Vietnam Tourism Industry Forecast to 2012”, a new research report by RNCOS, says that the total number of tourist arrivals are projected to climb up to nearly 5 Million by 2010. It also reveals that China has been the biggest tourism market for Vietnam since past many years, as 650,055 Chinese tourists flocked in during 2008, representing over 15% of Vietnam’s international visitors.

The idea behind launching scheme of visa on arrival is to boost the nation’s attractiveness for foreign visitors, said VNAT. The new program is going to be implemented in next few months, with the adoption of information technology system by the Customs Department to accommodate the new system. VNAT and other tourism related departments are going to develop the procedures.

Currently, the facility of visa on arrival is offered under exceptional cases only, when a foreign tourist hires services of a local travel company to accomplish visa procedures before leaving for Vietnam.

The boom in tourist arrivals in past few years is mainly accredited to the government’s aggressive marketing campaigns and efforts of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) to promote the country as a tourist destination.

Moreover, the number of foreign visitors coming to Vietnam from across the world is growing on account of its far stretched sandy beaches, UNESCO listed world heritage sites, mountain ranges or the warmth of the Vietnamese people.

According to a Research Analyst at RNCOS, “The government’s decision of implementing visa on arrival plan should run for a long time to fillip the tourist inflow in the country. Hence, Vietnam should exploit the opportunity and ensure high tourist arrivals by offering the best services to visitors. The industry should also increase its investment in tourism products to make visitors come back to Vietnam in late 2009 and 2010.”

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