Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam will continue visa exemption for citizens of Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Belarus, until the end of 2022.
The visa exemption for these countries, which was first introduced in 2015, would have expired at the end of 2019. The exemption has been applied for tourists who stay in Vietnam less than 15 days.
The RoK has the most visitors to Vietnam among eight countries enjoying the extension of visa exemption, with nearly 3.7 million in the first 11 months in 2019.
Japan and Russia follows the RoK, with 872,000 and 585,000, respectively, in this period.
Vietnam welcomed over 18 million foreign visitors in 2019, a record so far and a year-on-year increase of 16.2 percent.
In 2019, Vietnam was honoured with global prestigious prizes such as the World Golf Awards, the World Travel Awards, and the Asia’s Best Destination.
Vietnam’s tourism competitiveness has continuously improved, standing 63th among 140 economies in the World Economic Forum (WEF) ranking./.