Southeast Asian tourism ministers to discuss single visa policy
The tourism ministers of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar will meet in Ho Chi Minh City Wednesday to discuss creating one visa that would enable tourists to travel freely between the five nations. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of the 9th International Travel Expo scheduled to be held in Nguyen Van Tuan, chief of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, told the press that the leaders of the five countries generally support the single-visa policy, and it is just a matter of time before the policy becomes reality. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has tasked the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism with researching how the one-visa policy would be implemented, Tuan said. The tourism sector is also planning to ask the government to unilaterally issue visa exemptions to citizens of certain countries, he said. Most Southeast Asian countries have efficient visa on arrival systems which experts say make it easy for tourists to plan their trips. For Vietnam, tourists have to apply for their visas weeks in advance, send their passports to the Vietnamese embassies or go online for letters to confirm their visas will be issued on arrival and then ending up waiting for a long time after arriving in the country. Tourists have also complained that when they go to The diverse Southeast Asian region of around 600 million people boasts numerous exotic destinations including the jungle-covered temples at Angkor Wat in ASEAN countries recorded around 77 million foreign visitor arrivals in 2011. By Tran Tam, Thanh Nien News |
↧
Article 5
↧