Foreigners visit the former imperial city of Hue.

To afford the tourism industry growth impetus, the government has agreed on visa waivers for citizens of Russia, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Belarus until December, 2022, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said Tuesday. Travelers will be allowed to remain in Vietnam for 15 days. The visa exemption program for these eight countries commenced in 2015, set to expire this year.

The number of Russian, Japanese and South Korean tourists accounted for about one third of all foreign visitors to Vietnam last year. Western Europeans are big spenders and shell out on average more than 1,300 per trip while overall foreign visitors spend 900 USD, VNAT data shows.