In recent years, Vietnam has been considered to be a safe and attractive destination for Japanese and RoK tourists. However, only Hanoi and HCM City are familiar to them while the great tourism potential of the south central costal city of Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa Province has still not yet been widely introduced to potential tourists.

In order to promote cooperation in tourism advertisement between Khanh Hoa and Japanese and RoK travel companies, the Khanh Hoa Department for Culture, Sports and Tourism has cooperated with the Vietnam Aviation Corporation in conducting a market survey and seeking investment opportunities for two Japanese and RoK tourism delegations in Nha Trang.

In 2007, Vietnam welcomed around 450,000 RoK tourists, taking second place after China and approximately 380,000 Japanese tourists. However, there has recently been a fall in the number of tourists from the two major markets.

According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), 227 Japanese tourists and 277 RoK tourists visited Vietnam over the past seven months, down 4.2 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively over the same period last year.

The decline is attributed to Vietnam’s failure to stamp its mark through advertising in the Japanese market. Mitsui Shinsuke, a member from Japanese Fam Trip said, “Currently, Japanese people have little knowledge of Vietnam. Therefore, you should further promote tourism from the Japanese market by conveying the uniqueness of Vietnam’s culture and tours of its attractions, thus enabling Japanese tourists to select your country as their destination.”

One of the tourism sector’s weaknesses in developing Japanese and RoK tourism markets is lacking in qualified tourist guides who are fluent in Japanese and Korean languages.

The Vietnam Administration of Tourism said that Vietnam now has only 50 tourist guides who can use the Korean language while the tourism sector needs between 800-1,000 to the satisfy tourism service demand.

In addition, investment activities to attract Japanese and Korean visitors to Vietnam have not achieved results as expected. Furthermore, Japanese and Korean visitors tend to love new markets, thus Vietnamese travel agencies should diversify their tourism products and increase promotional activities to court the demand of these customers.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thao, head of the Research and Human Development Department of the Sao Mai Century 21 Company, said that the company plans to promote tourism from the two markets by launching major products such as eco-tourism and spa and medical treatments using natural sources.

Sharing his experience in attracting foreign tourists, Jurairat Povibool, marketing manager of the Sunrise Hotel in Nha Trang, said that they are always ready to welcome visitors from the RoK and Japan. The staff can speak Japanese to serve Japanese tourists who do not speak English. For Korean tourists, they often have Korean guides.

Over the past few years, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have remained popular destinations for Japanese and Korean tourists. As a result, the tourism sector wants to promote Nha Trang as a new destination for these tourists.

To make this happen, representatives from the Vietnamese tourism management agency will have a working session with the Japanese tourism association in order to develop Vietnam as one of destinations in its Visit World Campaign. The campaign aims to raise the number of Japanese people visiting overseas countries to 20 million by 2010. If Vietnam is chosen, the country in general, and Khanh Hoa in particular, will become a popular destination for Japanese people.