HCM City (VNA) - Officials of Ho ChiMinh City’s Tourism Department on February 4 welcomed the first foreignerentering Vietnam on an e-visa, Richard Kenneth Wilson of the UK, at the Tan SonNhat International Airport.

Wilson was one of 40 foreigners receiving anelectronic visa under a two-year pilot programme launched on February 1 forcitizens of 40 countries.

The countries include Argentina, Armenia,Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brunei, Bulgaria, Chile, China (not applicable to Chinesee-passport holders), Colombia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan,Luxembourg, Mongolia, Myanmar, Norway, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland,Romania, Russia, Slovakia, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, Timor Leste,the United Kingdom, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Applications for the 30-day visas are submittedthrough //xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn or //immigration.gov.vn, and visas orrejections are supplied within three working days.

Bui Ta Hoang Vu, director of the tourismdepartment, said e-visas are expected to attract more foreign tourists to thecity.

Tran Van Long, director of Viet Media Travel,said the new system "catches up with the global trend in developingtourism.” Long suggested the Government add more countries to the list ofeligible nationalities once the pilot programmed ends.

Nguyen Duc Tri, head of the Tourism Instituteunder the Vietnam National University - HCM City, said the e-visas also enableconstant updates of foreign tourists visiting the country, helping serviceproviders identify trends and tastes.

In response to questions about the speed of thetwo new websites, Nguyen Quy Phuong, head of the Travel Department under the VietnamNational Administration of Tourism, told Thoi bao kinh te Sai Gon (The Sai GonTimes) that they occasionally were slower than expected in their first days ofoperation but the immigration agency was working hard to fix the problem.

Vietnam welcomed over one million foreigntourists in January, 23.6 percent higher than the same period last year.-VNA