Expected to welcome international visitors by sea and land

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposes to expand welcoming international tourists by sea and land in the second phase of the pilot program.

This is a proposal in the pilot deployment report to welcome international visitors to Vietnam sent by the Ministry to the Prime Minister.

According to local assessment and cruise tourism operators, more than 30 countries and territories have restarted this type of tourism and are ready to welcome cruise ships. In particular, international shipping lines also have plans to exploit guests during the winter break in 2021.

Vietnam has welcomed many superyachts such as Silver Spirit, Crystal Symphony... before Covid-19. Photo: Silver Spirit

In addition, the ministry also proposed to restore the visa-free regime of less than 15 days for tourists in some markets such as Korea, Japan, and Russia according to the policy before Vietnam closed in March. 2020. The Immigration Department's approval of visitors on arrival makes it difficult to attract tourists, reducing the competitiveness of Vietnam's tourism with other countries in the region.

According to the plan, in the next phase of the pilot program to welcome international visitors, the target audience is Vietnamese people living and studying abroad. The welcoming localities will expand to Binh Dinh and Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism also proposed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss with other countries and territories to accelerate mutual recognition of "vaccine passports", creating favorable conditions for welcoming international guests and sending Vietnamese tourists away. foreign. In addition, it is reopening regular flights, allowing tourists to use local tourism services after going on a 3-day tour and having a negative result for nCoV on the 3rd day.

Vietnamese people living abroad are a group of tourists who are in high demand in Vietnam during the 2022 New Year and the high Lunar New Year. In the photo are the first international tourists back to Khanh Hoa. Photo: Xuan Ngoc

As of December 6, three localities Kien Giang, Quang Nam and Khanh Hoa have welcomed 1,179 international guests. Expected number of guests by the end of this year is 14,500 guests. Da Nang and Quang Ninh are expected to welcome guests from January 2022. No case of Covid-19 infection from international guests has been recorded.