Martin Koerner, chairman of EuroCham Vietnam's Tourism and Hospitality Sector Committee, told at a tourism conference Wednesday that Vietnam's visa policy remains complicated and restrictive compared to regional neighbors such as Thailand and Singapore. Thailand already extended its tourist visas to a maximum stay of 45 days for over 50 countries while Vietnam currently exempts only citizens of 25 countries from requiring visas with maximum stays of 15 days. EuroCham has proposed the government expand visa exemptions for more countries, including all European countries, the United States, Australia and New Zealand and prolong the duration of visa-free stays to 30 days. "However, we have seen slow progress in achieving this," Koerner said. "The country needs to implement a tourism development strategy quickly to compete with its regional competitors." Nuno F. Ribeiro, a Portuguese lecturer in hospitality and tourism at RMIT University, also proposed Vietnam waive visas for more … [Read more...] about Foreign experts urge Vietnam to relax visa policies, improve tourism services