During the last 10 years, a growing number of Japanese tourists have been coming to Vietnam. Last year, for example, Vietnam welcomed about 400,000 Japanese travelers. The Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) said that about 16.5 million Japanese people go abroad each year and nearly 400,000 of these people visit Vietnam. Experts say that Vietnam has the potential to attract even more tourists from Japan.
The Japan Tourism Marketing Company did a survey which showed that Japanese tourists go to Vietnam to enjoy Vietnamese food, shop and learn how Vietnamese people live and about Vietnamese culture in general.
Apart from the special kinds of food such as spring rolls (nem) and noodle soup (pho), and the various handicrafts, there are many other interesting things for Japanese tourists to discover.
The survey showed that 88 percent of Japanese tourists said that they come here to enjoy the Vietnamese food, 82 percent wanted to go shopping, 59 percent wanted to visit historical sites, 40 percent came to visit museums, 35 percent were looking for nature, 31 percent wanted to enjoymassage, and 23 percent wanted to relax at a seaside resort.
Seventy-two percent of Japanese tourists going to Vietnam went to Ho Chi Minh City, 48 percent to Hanoi, 26 percent to Ha Long Bay, 26 percent to My Tho, 19 percent to Hue, 17 percent to Hoi An and 16 percent to Nha Trang.
Compared to Thailand, however, Vietnamese tourism advertising is weak. Other weaknesses are the unqualified and unskilled Vietnamese tour guides, a lack of cooperation between tourism businesses and airlines and the lack of coordination between different localities in tourism promotion.
In 2008, the Japanese travel companies JTB and APEC cooperated with Japan Airlines (JAL) and Vietnam Airlines to organize hundreds of workshops presenting tourism destinations in Vietnam, along with tourism and airline trade fairs in Japan.
In September 2009, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), Vietnam Airlines and the city of Da Nang launched a \'Vietnam Show 2009\' advertising campaign to popularize Vietnamese tourism in Japan. This program was kicked-off in the city of Sakai in Osaka province (where the Vietnamese Consulate General is based) with music, dance and fashion shows. \'Vietnam Show 2009\' is one of the biggest advertising programs presenting Vietnamese tourism in Japan. This event presents the image of Vietnam and therefore it is hoped to attract more Japanese tourists to Vietnam. Under this program, there will also be tourism workshops with the participation of Vietnamese and Japanese travel companies.
In September 2009, JATA did a survey of the Vietnamese tourism in the framework of the "Visit World Campaign" launched by this association.
The vice chairman of JATA, Takashi Sasari, said that when he came to Vietnam at this time he could feel the rapidity of development in Vietnam as well as its great potential in terms of tourism. The Japanese tourism sector highly appreciates the efforts of the Vietnamese Government, especially the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, to establish a bilateral cooperative relationship in the field of tourism. It is hoped that the number of Japanese tourists going to Vietnam will increase. The number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam could reach 600,000 per year, Mr. Sasari said.