Due to the number of similarities, culture and tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Japan has increasingly obtained good results. However, to achieve the goal of attracting 1 million visitors from Japan by 2015, Vietnam needs to have specific promotion plans and strong direction. The cooperation and exchange activities should be expanded and developed.
According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT), in the recent 10 years, the number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam has been increasing year on year. Japan is always in the top 5 countries in number of visitors to Vietnam, with the average number of more than 400,000 arrivals / year. In 2011, Japan ranked third after China and South Korea, with 481,519 visitors to Vietnam, increasing 8.9 percent compared to 2010. In the first eight months of 2012, the number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam reached 376,324, increasing 18.9 percent over the same period last year. Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) rated Vietnam among the favourite destinations of Japanese visitors because of political security and stability, close distance, similarities in culture and good diplomatic relations.
In recent years, Vietnam-Japan tourism cooperation has made important progress. Vietnam has successfully held the Vietnam Culture Tourism Festival in Japan in June, 2010; and in September, 2010 on the occasion of Vietnam attending the annual Tourism Fair JATA, the Roadshow program - promoting Vietnam’s tourism was held in Tokyo and attracted special attention from the Japanese people. The two countries have coordinated with other related agencies to publish leaflets, and DVDs in Japanese; increasing the exchange of information and promotion of tourism, the two sides will also have activities to promote Vietnam and Japan's tourism. Besides, the Japanese and Vietnamese business delegations have conducted a survey of tourist attractions and worked with hotel businesses and tour operators in different provinces and cities of the two parties to find opportunities to expand cooperation in this field.
An event marking a turning point in the development of tourism cooperation between the two countries took place in May, 2012, when the working group to promote Vietnam - Japan tourism had their first meeting in Hanoi to evaluate the achievements in the cooperation process. Accordingly, in April, in Hue city, the two sides jointly signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of representative offices of Vietnamese tourism in Japan. The Department of Tourism has created the Vietnam tourism promotion website in Japanese. The website is an information channel to promote Vietnam's tourism as well as advertise corporate brands for Japanese tourists. The Japanese visitors will have the opportunity to better understand the history, traditions and people of Vietnam.
In addition, the co-operation of Vietnam-Japan culture is also growing, as indicated by the number of active cultural exchange between the two countries become more active in recent times. Vietnam and Japan have jointly organized many programs, meaningful activities such as: performing arts programs and festivals, exhibition about the country and people of Japan, Japanese Film Week in Vietnam; and regularly Japanese experts sent to Vietnam to support a number of projects to conserve cultural heritage. In December 2011, National History Museum of Vietnam and the Kyushu National Museum of Japan held a signing ceremony of the agreement and cultural and academic exchanges and signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in research and cultural exchange for the period 2011 - 2015. This is the first activity in the process of cooperation between the two museums towards larger-scale cooperation activities between the two sides in the future. At the same time, it is the great significant activity to promote long-term cooperation relationship in the field of academic and cultural exchanges between the two museums.
Most recently, on August 24th evening, in the ancient town of Hoi An, the 10th Vietnam-Japan cultural exchange program opened. The event attracted many visitors to participate in many diverse activities, such as Haiku poems calligraphy, Japanese and Quang Nam gastronomy presentations, taking photos with Yukata, Origami paper folding, Japanese manga and Japanese Oscar winning cartoons, tourism and crafts fairs, and launching the thematic tour "ancient Japan". The Japanese Association of Travel Agents (JATA) assessed Vietnam in general and central Vietnam in particular as having attractive potential with the World Heritage Hue Citadel, Hoi An Ancient Town, My Son temples, Hue royal court music, National Park Phong Nha - Ke Bang; beautiful beaches such as Lang Co (Hue), My Khe (Da Nang), and Cua Dai (Quang Nam); unique festivals combined of traditional and modern: Hue Festival, Quang Nam Festival - Heritage Journey, and Danang International Fireworks.
In addition, in a series of activities to promote cultural exchange between the two countries, tourism and cultural festivals of Vietnam in Japan in 2012 will be held from 11-20 September in Tokyo and Fukuoka. This is an opportunity for Vietnam to promote and introduce our typical products to the world, call for cooperation in various fields in the future, introduce Vietnamese culture to the Japanese people and Vietnamese communities in Japan. The festival also marks the journey of 5 years and reinforces the close relationship between Vietnam and Japan. It is an important event to celebrate 40 years of relations between the two countries Vietnam- Japan in 2013.
Thu Ha
Vietnamese
