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| Buyers and sellers meet in a business matching session at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center in District 7 - Photo: Dao Loan |
HCMC – Several overseas travel firms on Wednesday called on tourism authorities of the three Indochina countries to go beyond the slogan to make the sub-region a real single destination by making cross-border travel free of red tape.
Gabriella Papp, sales manager of Eurohand Travel from Hungary, suggested that the three countries consider the possibility of issuing a common visa for travelers to cross the border easier. The common visa will help international tourists to save time and budget and make it easier for them to tour the three destinations.
“There are no embassies of Laos and Cambodia in Hungary, so tourists can benefit greatly if the three countries have strong cooperation to make the one-visa procedure,” she said at the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Destination Nexus for Tourism seminar held in HCMC’s District 7.
Of course this bold suggestion is difficult to realize given the huge amount of work to be tackled to iron out related procedures.
On the first day of the gathering, visa procedures were also the issue that captured great interest from overseas travel firms.
A representative from Italia complained about the complicated visa procedures in Vietnam, let alone the paperwork to enter Indochina, so the travel firm wanted to have clear information about procedures.
A representative from Bangladesh raised a similar question, wanting to know the easy way to get a visa to enter Vietnam. “And besides Vietnam, we also want to know about the procedures in Laos and Cambodia to bring tourists in,” he said.
Other travel agents suggested that Vietnam give visa exemption to visitors from potential markets.
Vu The Binh, head of the Travel Department under Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said that Vietnam is giving visa exemption to nine countries in ASEAN and some other countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Russia.
The visa exemption policy is only offered to visitors from those countries with huge potential as a key source market for Vietnam, he said.
However, Binh said visas for travelers were not that difficult if foreign travel companies cooperate with local travel firms to make the procedures.
The tourism official also noted that Vietnam has been exempting visa fees during promotion programs to make it more attractive to international visitors. “We expect the next program (of visa fee exemption) will be launched next month. It will run until the end of this year,” he said.
Foreign participants at the seminar said the three countries are on the right way to strengthen cooperation to promote Indochina as a single destination. However, the three countries need more efforts in developing products, and linking tourist sites for better attraction.
A tour operator from Myanmar suggested that Vietnam Airlines need to connect flight from HCMC to Siem Reap in Cambodia and then Myanmar along with linking flights from Paris to HCMC and Siem Reap and then Myanmar to woo more international tourists.
The seminar is one of several activities of the yearly International Travel Expo in HCMC. Other activities staged on Wednesday included the ASEAN Tourism Forum, buyers-sellers speech dating, and a special dinner to welcome foreign buyers. The exhibition and other meetings of tourism officials will take place on Thursday in the city.
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