States employ travel visa as an instrument to leverage on visitor arrivals for various reasons.
In tourism, visa plays a crucial role in facilitating potential and last-minute tourists’ decision
making process. This paper focuses on the Vietnamese government’s visa policy in the context
of tourism development. Adopting an economic approach, this paper reviews key
achievements in tourist immigration policies and examines the challenges that deter tourists
from visiting the country. This study purports that a stronger national strategy pertaining to
simplification of visa processing and streamlining common visa entry union with neighboring
countries within the AEC 2015 framework will translate to gains for Vietnamese tourism.
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Key words: economic approach, national visa policy, tourism developmen
