Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s new visa policy may help the country welcome 12 million foreign tourists this year, far surpassing the target of 8 million set previously, said Hoang Nhan Chinh, Secretariat Director of the Vietnam Tourism Advisory Board(TAB).

On June 24, the Vietnamese National Assembly approved theLaw on amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Law on theExit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, as well as the Law on Foreigners’ Entryinto, Exit from, Transit through, and Residence in Vietnam.

Accordingly, upon being granted an e-visa, a foreigner canenter and exit an unlimited number of times within 90 days, without having togo through procedures for obtaining a new visa.

Citizens of countries that are unilaterally exempted fromvisas by Vietnam will be granted temporary residence for 45 days (up from 15days) and can be considered for visa issuance and temporary residence extensionaccording to regulations.

Currently, the e-visa issued by the Immigration Departmentto foreigners through the electronic transaction system is only valid once.Vietnam is issuing e-visas to citizens of 80 countries.

Chinh affirmed that Vietnam’s new visa policy is more favourable, which will give a verystrong push to the tourism industry when the peak season of internationaltourism at the end of the year is coming.

The more favourable policy will help the tourism sector diversifymarkets, increase the number of visitors to Vietnam, prolong their stays, andincrease their spending. In addition, this policy will help raise the number ofair passengers, facilitate international trade exchanges, and attract moreforeign investors to the country, Chinh stressed.

However, he noted that Vietnam currently allows citizens ofonly 80 countries to apply for an e-visa to the country, and apply visaexemption for international visitors from 24 countries, much less than other countriesin the region such as Thailand (76), Malaysia (156) and Singapore (162).

Therefore, the list of visa-free countries, if quicklyexpanded, will create a great opportunity to attract more visitors to Vietnamfrom the third quarter of this year, he said, adding that the more foreignvisitors come, the sooner the country's tourism will recover fully.

At present, Vietnam is applying the unilateral visaexemption policy to 13 countries, namely Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea,Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Belarus, the UK, France, Germany, Spain andItaly.

The TAB is proposing the Government expand the applicationof this policy from August to 33 other countries that include the remaining 20 countriesof the European Union, and some other countries with large numbers of visitorsto Vietnam, such as the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Switzerland,Chinh added.

Assoc. Prof., Dr. Pham Hong Long, Head of the Faculty ofTourism at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, said that the openness invisa policy will bring about “dual benefits”, as whether or not foreignvisitors evaluate Vietnam as an attractive destination depends on this policy.

According to the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) and theWorld Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), a favourable visa policy can increasethe number of foreign visitors by 5-25% each year.

However, to make the most of this policy, the non-smoke industryis advised to take concerted measures, including speeding up promotionactivities, developing more typical and attractive products, well managingdestinations and developing high-quality human resources.

Vietnam welcomed over 5.57 million foreign tourists in thefirst six months of 2023, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism./.