The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said on September 16 that it has successfully organised a programme to promote Vietnam’s tourism in Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture, Tokyo and Hokkaido prefecture, and the Vietnam Festival in Kanagawa and Hokkaido prefectures.
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Foreign tourists in Hue city. (Photo for illustration) |
Through the events, standout cultural features were nudged closer to the Japanese friends who had expressed their impression on the cultural tradition and heritages, cuisines, handicraft products, and landscapes in the Southeast Asian country.
In addition, the events also serve as a bridge to enhance mutual understanding and tighten friendship between the two nations.
According to the VNAT, Japan is a key tourism market of Vietnam. Last year, the country welcomed 830,000 Japanese nationals, increasing 3.6 percent year on year. From the outset of this year, more than 620,000 Japanese visitors have chosen Vietnam for their holidays, up 13.7 percent from the same time last year.
Vietnam will attend the 2019 China-ASEAN Expo Tourism in Guilin, China on October 18-20.
Tourism promotion is part of the tourism sector’s efforts to attract more visitors from China, the EU, Japan and the Republic of Korea to complete its set target for the whole year. Vietnam eyes 700 trillion VND (30.1 billion USD) in tourism revenue, and this is a feasible goal as the sector is entering its peak season.
Vietnam ranks 63rd among the 140 countries and territories in the recently released Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) 2019, jumping four places compared to the latest 2017 ranking.
Released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) every two years since 2007, the TTCI 2019 analysed 140 economies and scored each according to their performance on the following six pillars – air transport infrastructure, ICT readiness, price competitiveness, international openness, travel & tourism prioritisation, and safety and security.
When it comes to price competitiveness, Vietnam ranks 22nd, rising 13 places while in terms of air transport infrastructure, the country has improved by 11 places, growing to the 50th from the 61st.
Source: VNA