Travel agents in Vietnam say they find it harder to apply for visas to some countries and territories because many of their Vietnamese clients do not want to come back.
Although the Vietnamese Administration of Tourism (VNAT) used to warn and impose severe punishment on some travel agents whose Vietnamese tourists attempted to illegally stay in foreign countries, the number of fleeing tourists is still on the rise.
A freelance tour-guide spoke to Tuoi Tre on the condition of anonymity that he was hired by a travel agent to guide 15 tourists who bought a package to travel in Israel from December 1 to 8 last year.
After they landed at the Tel Aviv airport in Israel, the tour-guide asked his staff to keep the tourists’ passports and they began touring Israel as scheduled. However, all of tourists fled without even getting their passports back from the tour guide.
A representative of the Vietnamese Embassy in Israel said 21 tourists in total traveled to Israel in three separate outbound tours and all of them attempted to illegally stay in the country. He added that four of them have been arrested and immediately deported from Israel while the remaining are still not found.
Authorities in Israel had previously been asked to offer limited visas to young Vietnamese, a reliable source told Tuoi Tre.
However, also according to the source, the fleeing tourists got visa approval from Israel’s Ministry of the Interior and got visa on arrival right at the airport.
Some travel agents said most of the fleeing tourists are in working age with some of them holding important positions at local companies such as directors, vice directors, and sale managers.
Nguyen Van Tuan, VNAT’s head, told Tuoi Tre that Vietnamese tourists are also reported to stay illegally in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Tuan added that though some travel agents are aware that their customers can flee but they ignore or connive with their clients.
Meanwhile, Doan The Duy, vice director of Viet Travel, said it is more difficult to get visas for Vietnamese tourists to Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, and some European countries because some of their clients have bought outbound tours and did not return.
In its recent statement, the Vietnamese Administration of Tourism has requested local outbound tour operators to prevent their clients from staying illegally in Israel or other countries.
The operators are also requested to carefully check the information of their customers — especially those from Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces in the central region and Hai Duong province in the north — before selling them outbound tours.
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