Thursday, July 9, 2009

Vietnam: Visa on arrival?

Just got this news in:
The Vietnamese government has then officially announced that Vietnam will "soon" start to provide visa-on-arrivals at international airports and border crossing points for all international travelers. Vu The Binh, head of the travel department of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), officially gave the information to reporters. The implementation will take a few months to give time for the Customs Department to adapt its information technology system to accommodate the new system. VNAT and other concerned departments will then look at the new visa procedures.


Actually the visa problem is one of the biggest obstacles for tourism in Vietnam. although Germany is the largest trading partner in the EU, it's tourists are still needing a Visa in advance. No idea why it takes months, but, oh yes, that's Vietnam

1 comment:

Tim said...

Visa on arrival is already available as long as you pre-apply.
But as a tour operator I agree that visa red tape is a big problem for Vietnam's tourism industry - scrapping visas, or just making the process simpler (introducing pay-as-you-go arrival visas for example) would lead to a huge increase in visitors and in repeat visits, and also open up the short break market. Fingers crossed!