(Central News Agency reporter Chen Jialun’s special report from Hanoi on the 1st) Thailand has successively implemented visa exemptions for China, Taiwan, and India. Vietnamese tourism industry operators are worried about the diversion of tourists and hope that the Vietnamese government can strengthen the stability and processing speed of the electronic visa system and open up more Visa-free travel to many countries allows Vietnam to fully utilize its tourism potential.
In order to compete for tourism, Thailand has recently opened visa exemptions to China, Taiwan, and India. Since these countries are important and emerging source countries of tourists to Vietnam, Vietnamese industry players believe that Vietnam’s rapidly recovering international tourism market may slow down, and tourists from the aforementioned countries Will be more willing to go to Thailand, which is visa-free.
Le Hong Thai, manager of HanoiTourist, said that visa policy is the key to the development of the tourism industry. Thailand can be said to be a model country that uses visa policies to attract international tourists. Now that it has opened visa exemptions to Taiwan, India and China, it will definitely Affecting passenger flow into Vietnam.
Vietnam opened electronic visas to Taiwan on August 15. Travelers can apply online by themselves, eliminating the previous high cost of having to entrust an additional operator to handle entry permits. According to Vietnamese statistics, the number of tourists from Taiwan surpassed the United States at the end of September and became Vietnam’s third largest source of tourists. By the end of October, a total of nearly 670,000 people had visited Vietnam, which clearly shows the effectiveness of the electronic visa policy.
Lai Hongtai observed that so far this year, South Korea is Vietnam’s largest tourist market. Before that, China ranked first for many years. This year, Indian tourists to Vietnam also increased significantly. He believes that although Vietnam’s visa policy has improved, it only provides visa exemptions to more than 20 countries. It may refer to Thailand’s practice and implement unilateral visa exemptions for important markets.
Other industry insiders said that although Taiwanese tourists can apply for Vietnamese electronic visas, they often receive reports that the application system is unstable. The application is approved but the visa is not sent to the system, and they have to pay a travel agency to process it. In addition, Vietnam cannot It is also common to hear that visas are issued based on the number of days promised, and we hope this can be improved.
Li Hongtai assessed that Vietnam’s tourism development potential is much better than that of Thailand. In the past 20 years, the tourism products of Bangkok or Pattaya have hardly changed, while Vietnam’s tourism quality has been greatly improved and its products have been introduced. How to properly utilize Vietnam’s tourism potential depends on Promotion by competent authorities.
In terms of expanding the Taiwanese tourist market, Li Hongtai believes that Vietnam has certain advantages. First of all, it is convenient to travel between Taiwan and Vietnam. There are many direct flights to Vietnam from Taipei, Kaohsiung and Taichung, and the culture and food between Vietnam and Taiwan are similar. He calls on the industry to Try to make Taiwanese tourists willing to come to Vietnam to stay longer and experience more. (Editor: Chen Chenggong) 1121101
