Foreign tourists in HCM City. — VNS Photo Thu Hằng

HCM CITY — Việt Nam will extend visa waivers for citizens of Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belarus until December 31, 2022, the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism has announced.

A resolution passed at the Government regular meeting for November said citizens of these eight countries need not apply for a visa regardless of passport type if the duration of their stay does not exceed 15 days.

The visa exemption for these countries, first introduced in 2015, would have expired at the end of this year.

Russia, South Korea and Japan are top source markets for Việt Nam’s tourism sector, according to the tourism administration.

South Korea and Japan are the second and third largest markets behind China.

Last year, the number of South Koreans visiting Việt Nam rose by 44 per cent to nearly 3.5 million. 

The number of Japanese visitors was 800,000, up 3.6 per cent.

Việt Nam received nearly 16.3 million foreign visitors in the first 11 months of the year, up 15.4 per cent year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. — VNS