The Government has agreed to extend a visa exemption policy for citizens from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy, from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.
Accordingly, Viet Nam will grant visa exemptions to citizens from the five European countries who enter the country for a maximum of 15 days, regardless of the type of passports and immigration purposes, on the basis of fully meeting the conditions prescribed by the law of Vietnam.
After one year of offering visa exemption for the five Western European countries, the country received a large number of visitors from these markets. According to statistics, more than 330,000 tourists from the five countries traveled to Vietnam in the first four months of this year, presenting a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.
There was over 720,000 travelers from these markets to the country from July, 2015 to June , 2016, up 15 percent compared to the same period. Vietnam received nearly 781,000 arrivals from the five countries in 2016, increasing by 19 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and earning US$238 million. Meanwhile the total number of travelers from the five countries saw an average raise of 5.35 percent per year in the 2010-2014 period.