Number of Vietnamese tourists to Japan sees biggest growth in first quarter

According to the latest report of the Japan National Tourism Organisation in Vietnam (JNTO), this represents the highest growth in terms of the number of foreign visitors to the Far East country, followed by the United States with a growth rate of more than 1.5%.

Vietnam is currently Japan's fifth largest international tourist market, behind only the Republic of Korea with more than 1.6 million visitors, China with nearly one million, the US with more than 378,000, and Thailand with over 244,000.

March alone saw the number of Vietnamese visitors to this market reach more than 53,000, thereby witnessing the highest growth compared to January and February.

Japan welcomed a total of 107,300 Vietnamese travelers in the first two months, up 43.5% compared to the figure recorded between January, 2019, and February, 2019.

Yoshida Kenji, head of JNTO representative office in Vietnam, said that this represents a positive sign as the number of Vietnamese visitors had reached more than 50,000 in each month since the beginning of this year.

The JNTO recently released a video clip promoting Japanese tourism, with the video featuring the participation of renowned Vietnamese singer Dong Nhi, her husband Ong Cao Thang, and their daughter Winnie. It was part of a large-scale Japanese tourism promotion campaign launched as part of celebrations for the 50th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic ties between both sides.

The organisation also launched numerous promotional activities, along with ramping up online advertising in an effort to attract more Vietnamese visitors to Japan.

The East Asian nation attracted 495,051 Vietnamese travelers in 2019, with the JNTO expecting that the figures for this year will hit the pre-pandemic levels.