Japanese tourists to Vietnam rise sharply

Photo for illustration 

Recently, tourism cooperation between the two countries has developed strongly, especially in the field of tourist exchange. For the 2010-2015 period, Japanese tourist arrivals to Vietnam increased 1.5 fold with a average growth rate of 9% a year. In 2015, more than 671,000 Japanese tourists visited the country, while the figure was 611,000 in the first ten months of 2016, a year-on-year rise of 11%.

Meanwhile, the number of Vietnamese holidaymakers to Japan saw a record growth with 7.2 fold in the 2006-2015 period at an average growth of 25% a year. For the 2010-2015 period, the growth rate was 35% a year from 42,000 to 185,000 arrivals. In the first eight months of the year, the figure posted 189,000 arrivals, up 28% over a year earlier.

Mr. Yasuto Kawarabayashi, Deputy Head of the Japan Tourism Agency, said that the increasing number of Japanese travellers to Vietnam showed the country is a very attractive market for Japanese with comprehensive tourism resources, world heritages, good food and interesting shopping places. 

For this reason, Japan promoted the establishment of a tourism representative office in Hanoi which will play a significant role in speeding up the growth of Vietnamese tourists to Japan and vice versa.

Currently, the Vietnamese government continues to offer 15-day visa waiver for Japanese until December 31^st, 2019, while the Japanese side loosened and simplified immigration procedures for Vietnamese travellers.

Two countries now have four airlines operating linking routes, in which the three of Japan are All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Vanila Airlines with five routes from Tokyo (Narita and Haneda airports) to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city with 42 one-way flights a week. Meanwhile, Vietnam Airlines is operating ten routes to Japan, with 66 one-way flights a week./.