Continuing to expand visa exemption policies is expected to help diversify the tourism market, increase the number of international tourists to Vietnam, extend their length of stay, and enhance the spending capacity of international tourists. This, in turn, boosts revenue for localities with tourism destinations and creates more direct and indirect employment opportunities in tourism. Additionally, this policy will increase the number of tourists by air, facilitate international trade exchanges, and attract more foreign investors to Vietnam.

The Prime Minister has assigned the Ministry of Public Security to promote administrative procedure reform and to use science and technology for automating the process of handling procedures for foreigners entering and residing in Vietnam. The Ministry will also focus on ensuring safe travel for tourists.

The Ministry will lead research to propose online exit and entry procedures using facial recognition (FaceID) and electronic passports (E-Passport) to make it easier and faster for tourists.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Public Security will consider piloting the issuance of border visas based on on-site personnel approval for international tourists. The Ministry will report to the Prime Minister in the second quarter of 2024.

The Prime Minister has instructed the Ministry of Public Security to lead and coordinate with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other relevant agencies. Their objective is to explore and recommend favorable policies related to entry and exit from Vietnam. These policies will be applied to several potential international markets with high levels of development, large tourism spending, and long length of stay in key tourist areas of Vietnam and other locations. Furthermore, the locality should have an efficient transportation infrastructure system, the visa exemption list should be expanded unilaterally, and a visa exemption pilot program for a short period (6-12 months) should be initiated for tourists from large-scale, high-spending markets. Additionally, long-term, multiple-entry visas (12-36 months) should be piloted to attract high-end tourists and visitors with high spending capacity from markets such as Europe, Northeast Asia, North America, India, and some countries in the Middle East.

The Tourism Advisory Board proposed expanding visa exemption for 33 more countries unilaterally, including the remaining 20 European Union countries - Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia - as well as 13 other countries such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Switzerland, Israel, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. The state should also consider four potential tourist markets, namely mainland China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, and India.

Starting from August 15, 2023, Vietnam began issuing electronic visas to citizens of all countries and extended the temporary residence period from 30 to 90 days. For citizens of countries unilaterally exempted from visas to Vietnam, the temporary stay period was increased from 15 to 45 days. The effectiveness of this policy change is evident in the increased number of international visitors to Vietnam in the last few months of 2023, resulting in a total of 12.6 million international visitors for the year, which is nearly 3.5 times more than in 2022. In January 2024, Vietnam welcomed over 1.5 million international visitors, which is equivalent to the same period in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, there are signs of an increase in the number of international visitors to Vietnam. This result was achieved thanks to the efforts of the entire industry, but primarily due to policies that facilitate tourism development as well as the careful attention and guidance of the Prime Minister.

It can be seen clearly that improving visa policies is essential to boost tourism competitiveness and attract international visitors.