Vietnam urges to facilitate foreign tourist visa extension

Vietnamese government office has urged relevant agencies to facilitate extension of temporary resident permits for foreign tourists from visa-exempt countries.

Accordingly, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked Ministry of Public Security (MPS), Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) as well as other agencies to extend temporary resident permits for these tourists with an extra of 15 days, according to the website of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) on Wednesday.

The Deputy Prime Minister also requested the MCST to strengthen its supervision of international tourism agencies in guaranteeing and managing their tourists in extensions of temporary resident permits.

The MCST was asked to coordinate with MPS and Ministry of Foreign Affairs to study on expansion of visa waiver program, especially for markets with huge tourism potential to Vietnam and having strategic partnership with the country, to submit to the government in June 2015, said the VNAT.

Vietnam currently exempts visa for nationals from 17 countries during time periods ranging from 14 days to 30 days. Most of the visa-exempt countries to Vietnam are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Foreign arrivals to Vietnam in the first four months of 2015 reached some 2.7 million person-times, down 12.2 percent year-on- year, according to Vietnam's General Statistics Office.