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After Sri Lanka and Thailand, Vietnam may be the next big destination to allow entry of Indian travellers without the need for a visa.
According to local news agency VnExpress, Vietnam’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung has called for short-term visa waivers for major markets like China and India to drive tourism recovery. Currently, only nationals of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland can enter Vietnam without a visa.
In the first ten months of this year, Vietnam received nearly 10 million international visitors, marking a 4.6-fold rise compared to the corresponding period in 2022 and surpassing the targeted goal for 2023.
Starting from mid-August, Vietnam began issuing e-visas for individuals from all countries and territories, providing a validity period of 90 days and allowing multiple entries. For citizens from the 13 countries exempted from visa requirements, there has been a threefold extension in the duration of stay, now set at 45 days.
Indian travellers have had a good few months, with Thailand and Sri Lanka, both announcing visa waivers. Starting November 10, Thailand has scrapped the need for a visa for Indian travellers. The visa exemption allows Indian tourists a 30-day stay, and will be in place until May 10 next year. The Thai government later said there was a possibilty of the scheme being extended, if demand grew.
“We want more travellers to visit Thailand,” Tourism Authority of Thailand told ET in a statement. “In 2022, we received 965,994 Indian tourists. This year from January 1 till October 31 we received 1,302,483 Indian tourists.”
Effective from 10 November 2023 to 10 May 2024, holders of Indian passports or travel documents will be granted a temporary visa exemption for a 30-day stay for the purpose of tourism in Thailand. With the visa exemption scheme, TAT expects Thailand to see 1.6 million Indian tourists in 2023, generating about 65.6 billion Baht in revenue. Indian tourists to Thailand stay on average 7-8 days with daily spending of around 5,500 Baht per person.
In October, Sri Lanka too introduced a visa-free entry initiative for visitors from seven countries, including India, China, and Russia, as part of a pilot project.The pilot project, which began immediately, will be in effect until March 31, 2024.
According to a McKinsey study released in November, Indian travellers are set to soar, given the relative economic prosperity and a growing propensity for international travel.
“If India follows China’s outbound travel trajectory (which it could, due to similarity in population size and per capita income trajectory), then Indian tourists could make 80 to 90 million trips a year by 2040,” said the report, From India to the world: Unleashing the Potential of India’s Tourists.
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