Vietnam will grant electronic visa for international tourists from early next year, said the Vietnam National Tourism Administration (VNAT) on Friday.

At a press conference in Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi, VNAT also said the e-visa system will be issued on a trial basis in the two years between 2017-2018.

Following that, all procedures from applying files, reviewing and announcing visa-granting result will be carried out on the internet.

The visa fee payment will be made via banking transactions to improve financial transparency and facilitate the application of visitors, said VNAT chief Nguyen Van Tuan at the press conference.

The time to review and grant e-visa is three days while the duration of a visa is 30 days.

The move aims at reducing troubles that tourists many encounter while applying for Vietnamese visa, especially in travelling time, said Tuan, adding that the tourism sector still expected more favourable policies to become more attractive compared with other regional countries.

International arrivals in Vietnam last year totalled over 7.94 million, with most of them coming from China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, the US, Russia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia, shows data of VNAT.

Among those major markets, Vietnam has offered visa exemptions for tourists from South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

– with other agencies