City to license foreign travel offices in June

      The HCMC Department of Tourism will begin licensing foreign travel firms to open representative offices in the city and renew expired licenses for foreign travel offices next month.
La Quoc Khanh, deputy director of the city’s Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism, told the Daily that the department would begin taking applications from foreign travel companies on June 1 after a long wait due to the absence of detailed guidelines for the Tourism Law.
Under the tourism decree, coded 92/2007/ND-CP, the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism is mandated to issue a license within 15 working days upon receipt of full and valid applications. The National Administration of Tourism will give certificates to branch offices of foreign travel companies in the country.
According to the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, seven or eight foreign travel companies are trying to open representative offices in Vietnam and over 20 foreign travel offices are operating on expired licenses and are waiting for renewal.
The National Assembly approved the Tourism Law in late 2005 and the Government issued a guiding decree in June 2007. However, the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism did not issue a circular to give detailed guidance of the government’s decree for the Tourism Law until last December.
Under Vietnam’s legislative process, a law is passed by the National Assembly, and then the Government will issue a decree providing general guidelines for the law before a competent ministry brings out a circular to give guidance in detail.
According to the HCMC Tourism Department’s website, as of September 22, 2008, HCMC had had 24 foreign travel company representatives including from South Korea, the U.S., Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, the Philippines and British Virgin Islands.