At the present, the tourism
activities in general and the operation activities of the foreign travel
company’s representative office (RO) are regulated by the Law on Tourism No.
44/2005/QH11 dated 14 June 2005 and its’ implementing regulations. Those legal
documents are the main basis for the tourism industry in Vietnam.
Even the Decree No.
72/2006/ND-CP regulates the operation activities in Vietnam of the branch,
representative office of foreign businesses, the law on tourism is the
specialized legal document and will be applied first when there is the inconsistence
between this Decree and the laws on tourism. The regulations on travel-related
RO is a separate regimes applied for the foreign businesses in the tourism
industry.
Basically, the parent
company must be lawfully established and currently in operation of tourism
business for at least 01 year and the application dossier must include the
form, the notarized copy of enterprise registration certificate, operation
charter or a paper of equivalent legal validity and the audited financial
statement or paper of equivalent legal validity on the operation of the foreign
tourism enterprise in the fiscal year prior.
There is no requirement on
the RO Head relating to the working experience or special qualification.
In case that a foreign
company wants to establish an RO in Vietnam to oversee quality control of
Vietnamese travel companies handling foreign tourists, this activity can be
considered as: Monitor and speed up the implementation of signed contract of
foreign company who it represents with the Vietnamese partners or relating to
Vietnam market.
This activity is regulated under the laws on
tourism, in details: Circular No. 3206/VBHN-BVHTTDL of the Ministry of Culture,
Sport and Tourism dated 03 September 2013 Guiding the implementation of Decree
No.92/2007/ND-CP of the Government dated 01 June 2007 regarding tour operation,
Vietnam based branch and operation office of foreign tour enterprise, tour
guiding and tourism promotion. The No. 3206/VBHN-BVHTTDL is consolidated from
the Circular No. 89/2008/TT-BVHTTDL dated 30 December 2008 and Circular No.
07/2011/TT-BVHTTDL dated 07 June 2011 of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and
Tourism.