Published:  10:11 Wednesday - November 07, 2012

On Oct. 29th, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) held a working session with representatives of Japanese Association Travel Agents (JATA), Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Organizing board of Vietnam Festival in Japan, Culture, Sports and Tourism departments of Ha Noi City, Ninh Binh, Quang Ninh provinces on assessing the outcomes of Japanese businesses’ famtrip in the Northern Viet Nam and the plan to attract Japanese tourists to Viet Nam in 2013.

Opening the working session, General Director of VNAT Nguyen Van Tuan said that Japan has long been one of leading source markets of Vietnam tourism, with 418,107 arrivals in first nine months of 2012, up 24.5% over the same period last year, which is 3^rd ranking in the source markets in Viet Nam. Recently, VNAT has cooperated with Japan Tourism Authority, JATA, JICA and relevant partnerships to implement campaign to receive 1 million Japanese arrivals to Viet Nam in 2015. The 40th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Viet Nam and Japan in 2013 with various culture, sports and tourism activities will be an importance landmark for the billateral tourism cooperation to take off.

Mr. Yamaguchi Tadashi from JATA shared the same ideas with Japanese businesses after the famtrip. They were impressed with destinations such as Citadel of the Ho Dynasty (Thanh Hoa Province), Phat Diem Church and Tam Coc (Ninh Binh Province), Ha Long Bay (Quang Ninh Province). According to him, now Japanese tourists mostly buy short tours to the Central and Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam thus should promote Ha Noi and surrounding provinces to prolong their tours in Viet Nam, especially for female tourists.

At the working session, Mr. Tuan informed about plan to attract Japanese tourists to Viet Nam in 2013 with main activities including: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will organize Vietnamese Culture and Tourism Week in Japan and Japanese Culture and Tourism Week in Viet Nam; VNAT will co-ordinate with Vietnam Airlines to join JATA Fair 2013 and will organize roadshows in some main Japan’s cities; Vietnam – Japan Cooperation Committee’s 5th working session along with Viet Nam – Japan Business Forum will be held in Viet Nam; famtrips and press trips will be organized to promote Viet Nam tourism destinations; websites and publications in Japanese will be produced. Mr. Tuan also proposed northern provinces to join with VNAT to carry out the plan aiming at attracting more Japanese tourists to the North.

Source: Vietnamtourism