HCMC – Many tour operators are still waiting for guidelines from the tourism authorities regarding the exemption of visa fees for tourists following the approval of the Government, and have yet to send the good news to their overseas partners.
Under a new decision last week, the Government agreed to exempt visa fees for international visitors in the last quarter of this year as a way to further bolster the hospitality industry despite its better-than-expected performance so far. However, the incentive is extended to only those visitors who purchase package tours offered by international travel firms who have registered to join the national marketing campaign in 2010 named Vietnam – Your Destination.
Travel agencies said they would announce the incentive to partners right upon the guidance.
“We will send the news to partners when we receive the guidance from the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) because the similar rule last year was complicated for tourists,” said Hoang Huu Loc, deputy director of Saigontourist Travel Service Co.
Loc told the Daily on Monday that visa fee exemption would help the tourism sector woo more visitors as visitors can save US$25 per person. In last year’s program, many tourists catered to by Saigontourist, especially French and German travelers, had received the benefits.
“In a time of tough competition, overseas partners will be happy if we can lower tour prices but we need more time to promote the program to buyers,” he said.
Tu Quy Thanh, director of Lien Bang Travelink, has the same view with Loc but his company has informed overseas partners of the incentive.
“We don’t have time so we send the new rule to partners first and then update the guidance later,” he said.
According to him, it is difficult to woo visitors from long-haul destinations like Europe in the rest of the year because the incentive was announced too late.
“But it’s good news because we have more tourists to travel by groups. We will inform the partners as soon as possible,” said Nguyen Minh Quyen, deputy director of Ben Thanh Tourist Travel Service Center.
Loc from Saigontourist expects the company can make the procedures for tourists in the last two months of this year as it needs time to have the guidance from VNAT and feedback from overseas travel agents.
VNAT has reported more than 383,000 foreign visitors to the country in September, bringing the total number of foreign arrivals to over 3.73 million in the year to date, up 34.2% year on year. The country’s tourism expects to receive five million foreign visitors this year.
