The Viet Nam Tourism Association on June 4 launched a representative office of Vietnamese tour operators in Japan, the first of its kind overseas.

The office is tasked with supporting the two countries’ travel agents to lure tourists and helping Vietnamese localities boost tourism promotion activities in the market.

Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, addressing at the ceremony (Photo: VNA)

In his speech, Ambassador Doan Xuan Hung said this is a timely decision to meet rising demand for cultural exchanges between the two peoples, aligned to the bilateral agreement on enhancing the development of each side’s tourism.

Hung expressed his strong belief that the office will take an active part in tourism promotion activities to introduce the tourism potential of Viet Nam to Japanese tourists and create favourable conditions for them to visit the country.

Nguyen Van Tuan, General Director of the Viet Nam National Administration of Tourism, noted the country sets the target of welcoming 1 million Japanese tourist arrivals while Japan expects to attract 200,000 Vietnamese tourists.

To reach the goal, Viet Nam needs to build attractive tours to meet Japanese tourists’ requirements such as ensuring absolute security and food safety, he said.

Ryoichi Matsuyama, President of the Japan National Tourism Organisation (JNTO), said the combined number of Vietnamese tourists to Japan and Japanese visitors to Vietnam stands at 680,000, adding that in order to double the figure, both countries should ensure security and safety for tourists and foster the exchanges of information on their unique products.

Japan is one of the most important tourism markets of Viet Nam. Last year, Viet Nam received more than 600,000 Japanese tourist arrivals while the number of Vietnamese tourist arrivals to Japan posted over 85,000, up 55 percent from the previous year.