Vietnam is mulling tripling its annual spend for tourism promotion.
A proposal was put forward at a conference last week to hike the current VND40 billion budget (US$1.8 million) to VND120 billion (US$5.3 million) next year.
The country ranks comparatively lowly on the tourism competitiveness rankings of the World Economic Forum, well behind ASEAN neighbours Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.
The budget increase is part of plans to establish a national public-private sector national fund and ease tourist visa rules for citizens of major source markets.
Proposals for unilateral visa exemptions and establishing an e-visa service were also mooted.
Minister of culture, sports, and tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien said the country’s disjointed tourism promotion approach is a major reason why it has fallen behind other nations’ tourism efforts.
