Attracting international visitors from visa exemption policy

The Vietnamese Government has decided to extend visa exemption for citizens of 12 countries including major tourism markets such as South Korea and Japan until 2028. Most tourism businesses believe that the expanded and more flexible visa policy will contribute to increasing the number of international visitors to Viet Nam, and Da Nang in particular, in the coming time.

The more flexible and open visa policy will contribute to increasing the number of international visitors to Viet Nam, and Da Nang in particular, in the coming time. Photo: NGOC HA

These countries include Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the UK, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.

According to Resolution No. 44/NQ-CP, visa exemption is granted to citizens from The visa exemption policy when entering Vietnam for citizens of the above countries will be implemented from March 15, 2025 to March 14, 2028 and will be considered for extension according to the provisions of Viet Nam’s laws.

The resolution clearly states that citizens of these countries will be exempted from visas for a temporary stay period of 45 days from the date of entry, regardless of passport type and purpose of entry, on the basis of fully meeting the entry conditions as prescribed by Viet Nam’s laws.

As assessed by many tourism enterprises, this is considered a favourable opportunity to promote attracting international visitors to Viet Nam, and Da Nang in particular, in the coming time.

Mr. Nguyen Son Thuy, the Director of Visit Indochina Company Limited, said that visa policy plays a decisive role in inspiriting tourists choose what country for their potential trips. Countries in the ASEAN region with similar tourism products have proven that any country with an open visa policy will be an important condition to attract international tourists more effectively.

According to Passport Index, the interactive global ranking of the world’s passports in real-time, the visa policies of countries in the region are quite open to the world, such as Thailand lifting visa requirements for 40 countries, with a stay of up to 90 days; Singapore wavering visa for 130 countries, with a maximum stay of 180 days…In practice, the tourism industry and visa policies have a strong correlation and follow a linear direction, meaning that when the visa policy is expanded, the tourism industry will welcome more visitors over time.

Moreover, although the official cost of applying for a tourist visa is not much (US$25 /person), it has unintentionally created a barrier to tourists’ travel decisions. “Visa policy will be a plus point in the competitive advantage between popular tourist destinations like Viet Nam; especially in the context that neighbouring countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia are also gearing up attracting international visitors.

Currently, Da Nang welcomes 16 regular direct international flights, with many visitors come to Da Nang from European countries, the US, the Middle East, South Asia through the gateways of Bangkok (Thailand), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Taiwan and Hong Kong (China) …, so the more favourable the visa policy, the easier it is for international visitors to come to Da Nang”, Mr. Thuy said.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Le Cong Hoa, the Director of Viet Discovery Trade and Tourism Company Limited, said that visa exemption for citizens of the cited 12 countries is a correct and timely policy of the Vietnamese government, thereby creating favourable conditions to attract more tourist arrivals to Viet Nam.

For Da Nang, a destination highly appreciated by foreign tourists, with a system of leading service facilities that has won many prestigious tourism awards in the world, especially since the city has successfully organised many major events such as APEC, this is an opportunity to find alternative sources of visitors in the context of neighbouring countries having preferential policies to attract visitors, causing a shift in the city’s traditional tourist source markets such as South Korea and Thailand.

According to Mr. Hoa, in recent times, the Da Nang leaders and the municipal Department of Tourism have paid great attention to the tourism business community. With this resolution, the tourism industry needs to include it in the annual plan for tourism promotion, together with businesses, to make tourists know more about the destination of Da Nang.

“Travel businesses always monitor and promptly grasp new policies to proactively serve their customers. We will work with our partners to widely announce this policy and service incentives to tourists to attract visitors to Viet Nam, and Da Nang in particular,” Mr. Hoa shared.

At the recent Da Nang 2025 tourism stimulus event, Director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism Nguyen Trung Khanh informed that at the beginning of the year (January 15), the national government issued Resolution No. 11/NQ-CP applying visa exemption under the Tourism Development Stimulus Programme in 2025 for citizens of the following countries: Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland. This Resolution is the premise for proposing a temporary visa exemption policy for a number of important potential tourist markets of Viet Nam tourism.

To successfully carry out the task of accelerating tourism development, contributing to achieving the economic growth target set by the Party and the State, it is necessary to join hands and efforts made by localities across the country.

For Da Nang, the tourism industry must innovate methods, strengthen promotion, increase investment in research, restructure the market in the direction of promoting effective exploitation of large customer source markets, focusing on exploiting markets with high spending capacity, long-term vacation, promoting development and exploitation of customer segments according to specialized products that Da Nang has strengths in such as beach resort tourism, conference – seminar – event tourism, golf tourism, culinary tourism.

DA NANG Today