The five countries will join a list that currently comprises the four Scandinavian countries, Russia, Belarus, South Korea, Japan and most of the countries that make up the ASEAN economic bloc. Vietnamese prime-minister Nguyen Tan Dung endorsed the new additions in the middle of last week.
Visa free entry will be available for business travellers as well as holidaymakers. Travel operators and hospitality businesses in Vietnam welcomed the news and said it could lead to the renaissance of the flagging national tourism industry.
The Vietnamese National Tourism Bureau recorded the arrival of eight million international visitors in 2014. Figures for the first few months of 2015 show a significant decline with many tourism industry workers blaming the convoluted process of applying for a visitor visa when compared to Laos, Cambodia or Thailand.
Vietnam adds five European nations to visa free list
News in Asia
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry has posted a note on its website saying citizens of five European nations will be eligible for free visas next month. Effective 1 July 2015, people from the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain will be given 15-day visas when they arrive at a port of entry for the country.