(VOVworld) – On Wednesday, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism held a workshop on taking advantage of a new visa exemption for citizens from 6 Western European countries.

(Photo: vietnamtourism.gov.vn)

Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said it is essential to publicize the visa exemption regulations and create tourism links with other countries in the region: “We have worked out specific strategies until 2020 and defined major markets and action plans for each year. We hope that more countries will be exempted from visas to promote tourism growth. We have proposed expanding visa exemptions. But this will require specific steps”.

Since June, 2015, the number of foreign tourists has increased sharply. On July 1^st, Vietnam began visa exemptions of 5 years for citizens of the Republic of Belarus and 1 year for citizens of the UK, France, Germany, Spain, and Italy. The tourism sector hopes to welcome 730,000 tourists from Western Europe this year.