Vietnam extends visa waiver for five European countries

Vietnam’s government has extended a visa waiver program benefiting citizens of five European countries, just before the existing policy expires at the end of this month.

This is the second one-year extension Vietnam has given to the visa-free policy applicable to German, French, British, Italian, and Spanish visitors since its introduction in 2015.

Under the extended program, people arriving in Vietnam from these five countries won’t have to apply for a visa for travel between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018.

The maximum allowable stay is 15 days per entry, applicable to all kinds of passport and travel purposes.

The extension comes just in time as travel firms had began to worry whether their policies would perpetuate as the June 30 deadline drew near.

The visa-free travel policy has lured more tourists from the five European countries to Vietnam over the last two years, according to travel agencies.

In the first five months of 2017, Vietnam welcomed nearly 400,000 visitors from the five.

However, tourism companies have demanded that the allowable stay per entry be doubled to 30 days in order to attract even more tourists, encourage them to stay longer and return in the future.