The "Six Countries, One Destination" visa was proposed by Thailand in April to ensure seamless travel for tourists between six neighboring countries, creating a lever for tourism development in the region. The "big brother" of the Southeast Asian tourism industry also expressed its ambition to take advantage of this common visa policy to negotiate with countries in the EU, moving towards reaching a visa exemption agreement between Schengen and the ASEAN country bloc.
Businesses eagerly await implementation of "Six Countries, One Destination" initiative
In an interview with Vietnam News, Mr. Pham Van Ha, Director of Mundo Asia Tours, said that normally, tourists to Asia from distant places rarely visit one country, but at least three ones. He said his company sells many tours to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Many tourists even choose to visit four or five Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, the "Six Countries, One Destination" visa policy will be an extremely favorable condition for tourists to reduce time and costs, contributing to increasing the number of visitors not only to Vietnam but also to other countries in the region.
 |
| Mr. Pham Van Ha, Director of Mundo Asia Tours. (Photo: Mundo Asia Tours) |
Mr. Pham Van Ha shared that in 2024, Mundo Asia Tours expanded its services, including the Philippines, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea (RoK), with unique small group tours available in Spanish and Portuguese, and if the “Six Countries, One Destination” visa policy comes into effect, 30 multicultural employees from Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay, working at the company’s offices in Asia, will have opportunities to serve more and more customers from different Latin American countries in their own languages.
As one of the first person to invent this type of visa in the 2010 – 2011 period, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Ky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Corporation, hopes to be able to, through the Mekong River Commission, rely on the common strength of the river to implement a unique tour experience program for international tourists. "With the current economic situation and bilateral and multilateral cooperation that Vietnam has, it is too late to discuss this story. However, it is better late than never. If we do not want to fall behind in the tourism race, we must promote the implementation of this idea as soon as possible," said Mr. Ky.
Breakthrough opportunity for Vietnamese tourism
Currently, Vietnam has only exempted visas for 26 countries and territories, while Thailand has nearly reached 100. If the "Six Countries, One destination" initiative is quickly implemented, Vietnam can take advantage of the open-door policy of other countries to welcome a large flow of visitors from many continents, especially in the coming time when visitors from the Asia-Pacific market will dominate. It is forecasted that by 2050, this region will still play the role of the region with the largest scale and spending level in the world. In particular, Southeast Asia is considered a key and very dynamic destination. We must quickly take advantage of this opportunity to get ahead of the race, especially in the context of Vietnam's smokeless industry continuing to grow impressively in the first 10 months of the year.
 |
| Photo for illustration (Source: vneconomy.vn) |
According to information from the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, in October 2024, Vietnam's tourism industry welcomed 1.42 million international visitors, an increase of 27.6% over the same period last year. In the first 10 months of 2024, international visitors to Vietnam reached more than 14.1 million, an increase of 41.3% over the same period last year. In terms of international visitor structure, Asian markets contribute nearly 80% of the total number of international visitors to Vietnam. The four markets of the Republic of Korea, China, Taiwan (China) and Japan contribute nearly 60%.
In the last months of 2024, the tourism industry will continue to implement the plan of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, implementing Directive No. 08/CT-TTg dated February 23, 2024 of the Prime Minister on comprehensive, rapid and sustainable tourism development; Action Plan to implement Resolution No. 82/NQ-CP dated May 18, 2023 of the Government on key tasks and solutions to accelerate recovery and effective and sustainable tourism development. With the high determination of the whole tourism industry along with the participation of the entire political system and all classes of people, Vietnamese tourism is still steadily moving forward in the "Era of Rising" as General Secretary To Lam solemnly declared on the occasion of the National Day (September 2)./.