Vietnam - a destination Japan encourages its citizens to visit

DNHN - With a list of 24 destinations, including Vietnam, Japan anticipates that approximately 20 million Japanese will travel abroad by the year 2024.

The Japan Tourism Organisation (JTA) and the Japan Tourism Association (JATA) have released a prioritised list of 24 destinations in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The Japanese travel abroad. Vietnam is also included on this list.

This project is intended to assist the domestic airline industry and tour operators, which are recovering slowly from the pandemic due to the Japanese public's continued reluctance to travel abroad.

Japan lifted all border control restrictions on May 8, 2023, after upgrading the Covid-19 epidemic to rank 5 under the country's Infectious Diseases Control Law, equivalent to the level of seasonal flu.

As part of an innovative promotional campaign titled "Ima-koso! Kaigai" (It's time to travel abroad), JTA and JATA have released a list of 24 proposed destinations.

China, Hong Kong (China), South Korea, Taiwan (China), Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand are among the 24 destinations included in the policy package to encourage foreign tourism, along with Vietnam, India, Canada, the United States, Hawaii, Guam, Mexico, Spain, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Australia.

The official tourist offices in these locations will collaborate with JTA and JATA to increase the marketability of tourism services in Japan. In the meantime, Japanese travel companies will design more competitively priced vacation packages aimed at younger customers.

The JTA stated in a statement, "We hope that this declaration will provide an excellent opportunity for people to explore international tourism." The appeal of international tourism lies in the opportunity to experience beautiful landscapes, savour native cuisine, and interact with people from other countries.

President of JATA Hiroyuki Takahashi also emphasised that "this campaign aims to pave the way for the summer tourism industry to recover." Japan anticipates that by 2024, approximately 20 million Japanese will travel abroad, a level comparable to that before the pandemic.

The number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam has increased by an average of 9.1% per year between 2015 and 2019. In 2019, 951 000 Japanese tourists visited Vietnam. Vietnam welcomed 174.7 thousand Japanese tourists in 2022 and 204 thousand in the first five months of 2023 since opening to international tourism.

To attract more Japanese tourists to Vietnam, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has proposed several upcoming activities, including the organisation of a seminar to introduce Vietnam's tourism as part of the Tourism Festival. - Vietnamese culture in Kanagawa, in collaboration with Vietnam Airlines and partners to organise the Programme to introduce Vietnam destinations in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka) in July 2023, and participate in the Cooperation Promotion Programme Vietnam - Japan tourism organised by the Consulate General of Vietnam in Osaka in July 2023 as well.

According to the Japan Tourism Promotion Agency (JINTO), the number of Vietnamese tourists entering Japan has reached 45,800, an increase of 14.8% over the same period in 2019 and an increase of 17.2% over the same period in 2022. Tourism from Vietnam to Japan increased by 20.3% in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. This is an impressive increase given that many other nations are experiencing a decline in the tourism industry.

P.V (t/h)