Vietnam becomes fastest growing tourism market of Japan

Vietnam was the fastest growing tourism market of Japan with rise of 125.9 percent in 2018, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)’s 2019 white paper on tourism that was released on June 21.

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In 2018, more than 389,000 Vietnamese tourists visited Japan, up over 1.25 percent over 2017. The figure is predicted to continue rising in the future.

In the year, Japan welcomed 31.19 million foreign visitors who spent about 4.51 trillion JPY (42.19 billion USD). Compared to 2012, the number of tourists to the country expanded 3.7 times, while the spending rose 4.2 times.

Visitors mostly spent their money on shopping with over 1.23 trillion JPY, followed by accommodation with nearly 950 billion JPY.

China continued to be the leading country in the number of visitors to Japan with over 8.3 million, accounting for 26.9 percent of the total tourists to the country, followed by the Republic of Korea with over 7.5 million visitors, and Taiwan (China) with more than 4.7 million visitors.

According to the paper, along with big cities, other localities of Japan have become popular destinations for foreign visitors. Spending of the tourists in the localities in 2018 was 1.03 trillion JPY, a surge of 58 percent year on year.

The paper also shows the increasing attention of visitors to special experiences in Japan as well as exchanges with locals such as skiing and living with locals.

Besides, it also mentioned a number of problems caused by tourism such as reversal in locals’ life and environmental problems.

Japan will continue implementing policies to attract tourists, while completing its infrastructure system and providing wireless networks to tourist destinations and promoting its tourism through the application of modern technology.

VNA