Vietnam is keen to welcome a million tourists from Japan, targeting 2015 to achieve its goal. Japan is currently the third largest market of Vietnam’s tourism after China and South Korea, and Vietnam is offering visa-free entry for Japanese passport holders for stays of no more than 15 days.
HO CHI MINH CITY- With tourism promotion activities being conducted in Japan until next Tuesday, Vietnam has officially kicked off the campaign of attracting one million tourists arrivals from Japan in 2015, doubling that of last year.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) and travel firms are organizing a number of tourism promotion programs and road shows in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. Besides, Vietnam has been present at JATA Tourism Forum & Travel Showcase 2012 and will continue working with the Vietnam-Japan Tourism Cooperation Committee on specific promotion activities.
The Vietnam Festival 2012 in Japan was held in Tokyo by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan and relevant agencies of the two countries. “We are performing several activities in Japan and have officially kicked off the campaign of attracting one million Japanese tourist arrivals to Vietnam in 2015,” Nguyen Van Tuan, head of VNAT, told recently to reporters of the Saigon Daily.
Japan is currently the third largest market of Vietnam’s tourism after China and South Korea, and Vietnam is offering visa-free entry for Japanese passport holders for stays of no more than 15 days. They were nearly 482,000 Japan tourist arrivals in Vietnam last year, up 8.9% from the previous year. Meanwhile, the number in the year’s first eight months was over 376,000 arrivals, or a rise of 18.9% from the same period last year.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
