Although Vietnam enjoys continuous growth in international tourist arrivals, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism feels increasingly frustrated on the lack of progress on the visa front…
REPORT – BANGKOK – TTM+ 2012- Vietnam is enjoying a boom in foreign tourist arrivals. Last year was deemed as spectacular by the Vietnamese National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) at a press conference during the Thailand Travel Mart TTM 2012. “We saw total arrivals jumped by 18 % to pass the six-million arrivals’ mark. Domestic tourist generated 30 million trips up by 7%. Tourism revenues jumped consequently by 35% to reach VND 130,000 billion [editor note: US$ 6.24 billion],” explained Dinh Noc Due, Director of the International Cooperation Department at VNAT. In the first five months of 2012, international tourist arrivals continue to grow by 17.5%, reaching 2.95 million. VNAT is then confident to reach and even surpass its objective of 6.5 million international travellers for the entire year.
In the land of blossoming lotus, this sounds like a bed of roses for the experts at the national tourism administration. Unfortunately not completely. The most sensitive issue remains visa delivery for travellers. Among ASEAN countries, Vietnam is the last to have one of the lengthiest procedures to collect a visa. Only citizens of a dozen countries are so far exempted of collecting a visa at their embassy. For all other potential travellers to Vietnam, queuing at a Vietnamese diplomatic representation is the only way to get the magical stamp to enter the country at a reasonable fee.
They are already solutions to receive a visa confirmation by email through some online agencies with an additional cost varying from US$ 15 to US$ 45 depending of the type and the urgency of the needed visa. “We recognize the problem but there is little we can do. We try and try and try telling the authorities to look at the visa issue and facilitate procedures. But the visa problem is completely out of our hands and remains a decision to be taken only by Ministries of National Security –sic! – and of Foreign Affairs,” explains a visibly frustrated Dinh Noc Due. “We suggest already to extend the visa waiver program to more countries or to work on a solution of e-visa which would provide more flexibility to travellers,” he adds.
They have been discussions now for over five years to implement also a visa on arrival for an extended number of countries. So far, little progress has been seen. But Mr Dinh Noc Due still has hopes: “Tourism is really considered as a national priority to our economic development. Tourism development is now personally under the jurisdiction of our Deputy Prime Minister. We think that it could help to move on a faster track,” explains the Director. In the worst case, VNAT will have to wait until 2015, the year of ASEAN economic integration and the possibility of implementing one single visa for the whole area.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
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