ExPenhMan wrote: ↑Fri Nov 11, 2022 1:46 pm

Ong Tay wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 10:41 pm

johnny lightning wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 9:29 pm As far as I know tourist visas for VN are currently evisa only. Why the hell they don't allow VOA with the right paperwork or via Embassy/consulate I have no idea. Idiots.

There's been a major investigation underway at the immigration department and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with many arrests of high-ranking officials. There's speculation that until that has been resolved, evisas will be the only way for tourists to visit. The tourism industry and others have been pushing for a return to the prior system, but apparently that's falling on deaf ears...to the country's detriment.

Aha, very good, sir. I knew something was wrong in Vietnam when you see the gov completely blow the chance to attract snowbirds from Europe and NorthAm -- many of whom, via anecdotal comments, said they've already booked their winter escapes to Thailand and elsewhere despite really wanting to spend their time and money in VN.

I scan 8-9 VN news sites a day and never saw anything about this investigation. If I might ask, Ong Tay, do you have insider info or was it published somewhere? Anyway, thanks for providing an explanation to the question that's confounded me since the March 15 re-opening.

UPDATE: Are you referring to the investigation over the bribery scandals during the Viet repatriation flights? I suppose this could cause severe delays in any immigration and foreign affairs functions.

As I understand it, the fallout from the repat flight scandal has essentially frozen immigration internally. Remember also that a stricter visa regime went into effect during covid (with a much more onerous process for obtaining work permits and temp residence card). My understanding is that the repat scandal combined with the new rules prompted TPTB to resolve to crackdown on the whole visa agency "industry", or at least significantly winnow out the field.

The repat scandal is huge - a top aide in the government office and a deputy foreign minister are among those who have been arrested and booted from the party. Who really knows how many have been implicated?

The VN embassies are said to be annoyed by the current policy as well, as previously, they kept a portion or all of the proceeds from the visas they issued to help fund their operations. That may be one reason why embassy staff have been even less cheery and helpful than before...

Ong Tay wrote: ↑Fri Nov 11, 2022 10:30 pm The VN embassies are said to be annoyed by the current policy as well, as previously, they kept a portion or all of the proceeds from the visas they issued to help fund their operations. That may be one reason why embassy staff have been even less cheery and helpful than before...

Several years ago I was refused a visa at the Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh. I had complained about the discrepancy between their price and the fee posted on the wall, and they told me to leave and said they would not be issuing me any visas in the future. The 'security guard' outside who could facilitate prompt service was also part of their team.

The embassies of many countries are run as little fiefdoms and replenish their slush funds this way. This is why renewing UK passports overseas was centralised.

The number of foreign visitors to Vietnam this year is forecast to see a drop of 77% against 2019, the year before the onset of the pandemic, according to a report released by leading travel data & analytics company ForwardKeys.

Hong Kong posts the world’s slowest recovery for the year at an estimated 95% drop, followed by Japan (89%), Russia (88%) and South Korea (80%). Malaysia and New Zealand are expected to witness a drop of 76%, while Thailand, one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to reopen its tourism industry, is likely to see a 75% decrease over 2019.

ForwardKeys analyzed the level of tourism recovery of 100 destinations across the world based on its actual air tickets data.

All tickets issued until October 18, 2022 and those for future travel were included to show the travel results for the full year. Tourist arrivals are counted based on at least one day's stay at return tickets staying at least one night in the destination.

According to the report, Dominican Republic leads the world in international tourism recovery, witnessing a 5% increase in visitor arrivals against 2019. Turkey, Mexico and Costa Rica have seen their international tourism bounce back to 2019 levels.

"The least-recovered global region in 2022 is the Asia Pacific, which is to be expected given the late reopening of many of its destinations and China's ongoing closure," the report said.

Mainland China was not ranked as it has not been opened to international tourists.

Until China's outbound travel market is fully reactivated, regional destinations that used to heavily depend on Chinese tourists before the pandemic will need to shift their attention to other important markets, experts have observed.

Vietnam opened its doors partially to foreign tourists with tour packages to specific destinations in November 2021, before fully opening up on March 15.

However, it is only issuing 30-day, single entry visas to date, and both tourists and tourism businesses have called for reverting to offering three-month multi-entry visas.

Since reopening its borders and lifting most Covid restrictions, Vietnam has earned tourism revenues of US$16.5 billion, Ha Van Sieu, deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, said at a meeting last week.

Vietnam received over 2.35 million foreign visitors in January-October, less than half of this year’s five-million target.

In 2019, the year before the pandemic, the country had welcomed a record 18 million foreign visitors and earned tourism revenues of VND750 trillion ($30 billion).

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/travel/vie ... 34383.html