Ed prep

/ April 18, 2015

Former tourism chief blames visa rule for Vietnam’s falling tourist arrivals

Editor’s note: Luong Hoai Nam, former deputy head of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, says the current visa policy is discouraging international tourists from visiting the country in his op-ed exclusively written for Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper. Nam’s piece of writing is particularly worth noticing at a time when Vietnam reported its tenth straight drop in tourism arrival number in March, according to the VNAT statistics. The Vietnamese tourism visa policy, especially the complicated procedures to get a visa, is one of the import reasons why the number of international tourists visiting Vietnam did not increase but continuously shrank over the past time. Local tourism authorities attributed the falling number arrivals in ten months in a row to the plunges of the Russian and Chinese markets, while the growths of other markets could not offset for such losses. Such explanation, to me, is only partially correct. Reality is that the tourism visa policy is a very significant hurdle for the growth of international tourism in Vietnam. Complex visa rules; short exemption list With nearly eight million international visitors a year, including those who come by road via the borders with China, Laos, and Cambodia and those who arrive for business and investment purposes, the number of tourist arrival to Vietnam is only equal to that of a single destination in Thailand, Pattaya. And it is lower than that of Phukhet. Thailand rakes in US$60-65 billion from about 25 million international tourists it welcomes on an annual basis. The tourist arrivals of Hong Kong and Singapore are triple the figure of Vietnam. In my opinion, one of the main reasons vacationers do not choose Vietnam is the country’s visa policy, especially its complicated procedures. Holidaymakers do not mind paying a few dozens of U.S. dollars to get a visa, but they are indeed discouraged by complicated formality, and will thus travel to where they can enjoy a visa …

/ March 16, 2020

March 9-15: Vietnam proposes 13 priorities for 26th AEM Retreat

Vietnam proposes 13 priorities for 26th AEM Retreat A preparatory senior economic official’s meeting for the 26th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ Retreat (PREP-SEOM for the 26th AEM Retreat) was held in Da Nang city on March 8. The highlight of the PREP-SEOM was 13 priorities proposed by Vietnam – the ASEAN Chair in 2020. The priorities will be discussed at the 26th AEM Retreat before reaching consensus for key tasks for implementation in this year. The priorities are based on three main orientations, namely promoting connection and economic connectivity in ASEAN, enhancing partnership for peace and sustainable development and raising adaptation capacity and operational effectiveness of ASEAN. Vietnam suspends entry of tourists from or transiting Schengen countries, UK Vietnam has temporarily denied entry of tourists coming from or transiting Schengen countries and the UK within 14 days before their intended arrival in Vietnam, and suspend visas-on-arrival at border gates amid the rapid and complicated developments of the COVID-19 epidemic. The travel ban took effect at 12:00 on March 15, 2020, and will last 30 days. It is not applied to those who arrive on diplomatic or official purposes. Foreigners who are specialists, managers and skilled workers must undergo medical checks at the point of entry, and must follow epidemic prevention measures at enterprises and accommodations as required. Vietnam has informed foreign diplomatic representative and consular agencies and representative agencies of international organisations in Vietnam on this decision. Two-month budget revenue increases by 9.3% Budget revenue in the first two months this year increased by 9.3% over the same period in 2019. The total State budget revenue in the first two months this year reached VND276.7 trillion (US$11.8 billion), equalling 18.3% of the estimate and up 9.3% over the same period last year. According to the Ministry of Finance, the accumulation of domestic …

/ February 19, 2021

The American professor who pushes a Vietnamese student beyond boundaries

I clearly remembered my first year experience creative writing class. It was a required six-credit intensive writing course and I was not much of a writer. Yet, Dr Tingle saw right through my writing and was determined to show me my own potential. Dr Jacob K Tingle The campus of Trinity University is intentionally designed for different paths to cross. Dr Jacob K Tingle and I are one of those paths. Though not new to life’s surprises, I could never guess such a dynamic professor and avid sports fan would be able to teach and inspire me so much during my time at Trinity University. His many nudges out of my comfort zone are exactly the reasons I got to challenge my limitations and experience new things. Dr Tingle has always been a good listener and dedicated teacher. Once, while working on my final paper, I told him I wanted to describe this minuscule detail about pulling out the drawer of a heavy and expensive table, and he actually went through the trouble of Googling the most suitable existing table just so I could satisfy my punctiliousness. Dr Tingle in class In the end, I graduated from the writing course with an honourable A, announced as Winner of the FYE Writing Contest, and became his Peer Tutor for the following year’s FYE Creative Genius class, all thanks to Dr Tingle’s tireless encouragement. I gained increasing respect for Dr Tingle as I worked as his peer tutor. He treated me as an equal coworker, meaning, he was attentive and took my opinions seriously. If there is anything I could do to help this gentleman happier with his job if he hasn’t already, I will. I thought I had no more chances to be Dr Tingle’s student again, as his main profession was in sports and I hardly kept up with my daily steps goal. That was until my sophomore year when he invited me to take his one-credit Sports Philanthropy course. He thought I might enjoy the content as I was passionate about volunteering and social …