Foreign tourists visit Hoa Lu ancient citadel relic site in Ninh Binh province (Source: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Thenumbers of visitors from China, the largest market for Vietnam’s tourismsector, and the Republic of Korea, the second-largest, have increaseddramatically in the past few years.
Meanwhile, those from Japanhave only grown modestly in recent years despite a sharp increase in the numberof international tourist arrivals, according to the Vietnam NationalAdministration of Tourism (VNAT).
Though the number of Japanese tourist arrivals last year was a record 800,000,it represented only an 8 percent increase from the previous year.
Last year the number of Chinese tourist arrivals rose by 48 percent to morethan 4 million.
There were more than 2.4 million from the Republic of Korea, up 56.4 percent.
In the first five months of this year, the country welcomed more than 344,000Japanese tourists, up 6 percent year-on-year, while the number from China and theRepublic Korea totalled 2.1 million and 1.4 million, up 37 percent and 62 percent.
Tourism authorities attributed the modest growth to several issues such as theshortage of Japanese-speaking tour guides at popular tourist destinations andthe absence of VNAT representative offices in Japan.
The VNAT plans to organise some marketing and promotion programmes in Japanthis year to attract more tourists.
Last month the administration and the Japanese embassy in Hanoi organised aworkshop on tourism cooperation between the two countries.
Next September, together with travel firms and provincial tourism promotioncentres, it will organise road shows in Sapporo, Kanagawa, Fukuoka, and Osakacities in Japan.-VNA
VNA
