Hanoi eyes Japan

Hanoi’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism will target Japanese tourists to offset a sharp decline in Chinese tourists stemming from the East Sea dispute.
According to the tourism department, promotions will strive to improve the balance or market mix by targeting travellers from other Asian nations and Europe. Japan is the top priority as there enough direct flights between the two countries to support traffic growth.
An estimated 20 million Japanese travel overseas annually. So far, the number of Japanese travelling to Vietnam, and Hanoi is very small compared to China.
Hanoi and the Vietnam Tourism Association in Tokyo are cooperating to market tourism through the Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA). They are also jointly advertising reciprocal travel packages between Hanoi and Tokyo to attract Japanese tourists to the city.
For other markets, Hanoi will actively take part in tourism fairs, tourism promotion conferences and fam trips for travel agents and media.
Last year, 604,050 Japanese visited Vietnam, up 4.8% year-on-year.

Sourced: ttrweekly