Vietnam Considering Visa Exemption for French Arrivals

Vietnam Considering Visa Exemption for French Arrivals

Vietnam’s tourism sector is seeking government approval to waive visa requirements for arrivals from France in an effort to lure more visitors from the country’s seventh largest tourism market.

The proposal was announced at a meeting among more than 20 travel companies from France and the host nation at Caravelle hotel in Ho Chi Minh City on April 19.

According to French tour operators, the communist government should pay more attention to the eco-environment and attaching tourism products to the daily life of Vietnamese people which European visitors want; they come to Asia to discover and learn about the oriental cultural.

For many of French people, Vietnam has always had a close-knit relationship in history and culture as well as spirit with their country and Vietnam, therefore, will find many opportunities coming from France with the help of effective promotion campaigns.

Sharing with French partners, representatives from domestic hospitality industry stressed that Vietnam needs comprehensive strategies on tourism promotion in Europe, particularly in France, the steadily emerging market.

Statistics from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism showed that arrivals from France to Vietnam have increasingly grown in the recent years with more than two million visitors, up 500,000 over the previous years.

In the first quarter of this year alone, Vietnam served 30,941 French visitors, posting an on-year rise of 26.8 per cent.

So far, Vietnam has exempted popular entry visas for citizens from Scandinavian nations of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, ASEAN countries, along with Japan and South Korea.

Youth