HCM CITY – After more than one month of considering her vacation, Nguyễn Thu Phương, a young girl from District 3 of HCM City, has decided to choose Taiwan (China) as her travelling destination during the coming Lunar New Year.

Phương said that she considered other places but found that Taiwan was the best for her thanks to low cost and easy immigration procedures.

“The cost for a Taiwan tour is around VNĐ10 million (US$430) for four days. I have read a lot of information and found that the food is very good and the landscape is as beautiful as Europe,” Phương said, adding that it is not too difficult to get a visa.

In recent months, Taiwan has become an ideal destination for many Vietnamese travellers. Some go to this destination through organised tour operators and some go by themselves.

Everyday, pictures of young people travelling to Taiwan are on Facebook and other social media. In online tourism groups, many travellers shared experiences about how to travel to Taiwan the best way with the lowest cost. Advertising on Taiwan tours can be easily seen in many places in HCM City.

The situation was totally different one year ago.

A report from Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị newspaper said that last year only 11 tourism operators were permitted to open visa free tours to Taiwan.

At the time, only 181 tourists travelled to Taiwan through these 11 companies.

This year, however, the number of tourists who want to travel to Taiwan has doubled from last year, tour operators said, adding that the list of 11 companies has now increased to 70 companies in the whole country.

A tour operator said that this Lunar New Year customers using their tour to Taiwan have risen by 60 per cent over the same time last year.

Another company, Bến Thành Tourist, affirmed that the volume of tourists coming to Taiwan is up by 50 per cent year-on-year.

Tour operators attributed the increase to easier immigration procedures.

Three months ago, Taiwan began a new policy for Vietnamese citizens who have already had visas to the US, Canada, Japan or South Korea within the last 10 years. These persons are able to get a free visa to Taiwan for three months.

Another reason making Taiwan an attractive destination comes from air carriers, tourism companies said.

Many airlines including budget airlines have opened routes to Taiwan, such as Vietjet Air, Vanilla Air, China Airlines, Eva Air and Vietnam Airlines.

Normally, a two-way ticket from HCM City to Taiwan runs from VNĐ2.8 million. The price is even cheaper at promotion time.

Thanks to low flight costs, tour fares have also become much cheaper than in the past.

Currently, a tour from HCM City to four different places in Taiwan during four or five days costs from VNĐ10 million ($430) to around VNĐ20 million ($870). – VNS