Earlier in order to receive the Vietnamese visa tourists were required to pay two fees, Service fee and Stamping Fee. For one month single entry, the service fee happened to be 16USD whereas the stamping fee was 45USD. In order to encourage tourism in the country, the Vietnamese government has taken radical measures to cut down majorly on the stamping fee in order to reduce the overall cost of Vietnam visa. The new fee will be approximately 25USD for a one month single entry visa and 50USD for multiple entry visa valid for three months. Also as per the finance ministry of Vietnam, fees for long term Vietnamese visa will be $95 only and the visa will be valid up to 5 years.
As per the government officials, the latest slash in the visa fee is an attempt to not only boost tourism and foreign arrivals in the country but also to bring the Vietnamese visa fee on par with majority of the other countries lying in the region.
Foreign arrivals in Vietnam have been on an all time low this year. There was a major 5.8% decline in the arrivals in September as compared to August according to official statistics and this is one alarming situation for the country.
With the announcement of the new, much affordable visa fees, tourism industry is now hopeful of attracting more foreign visitors to the country beginning the last quarter. There are efforts to boost tourism in Vietnam consisting of promotional campaigns and hope that the downward trends end with the new fee announcement.
