Vietnam mulls tourism fee of $1 per day
The Vietnamese government said it needs more money to promote tourism and wants to charge each visitor an extra $1 per day, Thanh Nien News reported.
At a recent meeting of tourism companies and relevant authorities in Hanoi, the director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Nguyen Van Tuan, said the proposed tourism fee was “a necessity”.
He said the proposal had been included in a government draft resolution on tourism development for 2013-2020. The fee would be an important source of funds for tourism promotion activities, he added.
The government was spending some $2.35 million on tourism promotion every year before it was reduced to $1.4 million in 2012. Tuan said this funding was not enough for Vietnam, which has been visited by more than 6.85 million foreigners so far by the end of November 2013, of which 4.2 million came for tourism purposes.
If imposed, the levy is expected to render revenues of more than $20 million a year, as each tourist stays for three days on an average.
However, tour operators are not happy with the proposed fee. They say that tourism services pay taxes anyway and this is where the promotion funds should come from, instead of letting tourist pay for the country’s promotion. Moreover, they alleged a lack of transparency in distributing such funds.
The Vietnamese government said it needs more money to promote tourism and wants to charge each visitor an extra $1 per day, Thanh Nien News reported. At a recent meeting of tourism companies and relevant authorities in Hanoi, the director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Nguyen Van Tuan, said the proposed tourism fee was "a necessity". He said the proposal had been included in a government draft resolution on tourism development for 2013-2020. The fee would be an important source of funds for tourism promotion activities, he added. The government was spending some $2.35 million on tourism promotion...
The Vietnamese government said it needs more money to promote tourism and wants to charge each visitor an extra $1 per day, Thanh Nien News reported.
At a recent meeting of tourism companies and relevant authorities in Hanoi, the director of Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Nguyen Van Tuan, said the proposed tourism fee was “a necessity”.
He said the proposal had been included in a government draft resolution on tourism development for 2013-2020. The fee would be an important source of funds for tourism promotion activities, he added.
The government was spending some $2.35 million on tourism promotion every year before it was reduced to $1.4 million in 2012. Tuan said this funding was not enough for Vietnam, which has been visited by more than 6.85 million foreigners so far by the end of November 2013, of which 4.2 million came for tourism purposes.
If imposed, the levy is expected to render revenues of more than $20 million a year, as each tourist stays for three days on an average.
However, tour operators are not happy with the proposed fee. They say that tourism services pay taxes anyway and this is where the promotion funds should come from, instead of letting tourist pay for the country’s promotion. Moreover, they alleged a lack of transparency in distributing such funds.
