More than 40 Japanese tourism businesses and Vietnamese travel agents  attended a seminar on marketing for Japanese tourists in Ho Chi Minh City on October 25.

The seminar is part of activities to attract more foreign tourists to Ho Chi Minh City entitled “Next Ho Chi Minh City” with many promotional programmes. Due to the impact of the recent tsunami and earthquakes, the number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam has fallen sharply, but Ho Chi Minh City is still an attractive destination for Japanese visitors.

Japanese businesses expressed hopes that Ho Chi Minh City will be a key destination for Japanese visitors to other famous tourist sites, such as Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hue city and then to other countries in the region like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism plans to set up a representative office in Japan which is the third largest market of the Vietnamese tourism sector.

Vietnam received nearly 381,000 Japanese visitors in the first nine months of this year.

The seminar also introduced many images and documents on Vietnam’s important tourism destinations to Japanese travel agents.