Vietnam to promote tourism in Western European nations.
|
According to the administration, the delegation will introduce tourism products and policies, especially a visa waiver in 15 days for citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The initiative was introduced in June 2015 with the hope that it might boost waning visitor numbers to the country.
Early last month, the Government extended the visa exemption for visitors from these countries, which comes into force at the end of this month. The Tourism Advisory Council says the number of tourists from the five countries has risen by 10.1%, helped by the visa waiver.
Vietnam attracted over 6.2 million international tourists in the first half of this year, a 30.2% rise versus the same period last year. Tourists from major source markets like China, South Korea, and European grew strongly, according to data of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism.
The national tourism agency is striving to launch more promotion programs in these markets to increase foreign visitor arrivals by 30% to 13 million this year.
Much of this growth can be attributed to the government’s renewed focus on developing the tourism industry. Somewhat onerous visa regulations were changed in 2015, and now tourists from a range of European and Asian countries can visit Vietnam for up to two weeks without needing to obtain a visa at all.
Beyond that, the government is investing more in tourism marketing and promotion, as part of a goal for the industry to account for 10% of GDP in 2020, up from 6.6% in 2016. The country is targeting 17-20 million international tourists and 82 million domestic tourists by 2020.
Thien Minh Travel JSC, a leading travel, and hospitality group in Vietnam said the tourism sector should adopt other strategies like marketing on Facebook and Instagram and targets potential customers by offering particular products to better suit their tastes.
