Representatives from Quảng Nam provincial Culture, Sports and Tourism department, at the Expo 2025 in Japan. Photo courtesy of Quốc Việt

QUẢNG NAM – The central provincial tourism sector is offering bespoke services to attract Japanese visitors to destinations in Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng. 

It is part of the continuous journey of friendship ties built over centuries, and specific co-operation relations with Nagasaki, a Japanese city on the northwest coast of the island of Kyushu.

The Culture, Sports and Tourism department is promoting the tourism potential of Quảng Nam and Đà Nẵng, localities that will merge from July, at the Expo 2025 in Osaka, Kansai.

This stems from a Memorandum of Understanding on culture and tourism exchanges signed between Quảng Nam and Nagasaki in March.

Deputy director of the department, Văn Bá Sơn, said the event is not only a tourism promotion, but one of a series of continuous activities in boosting the relationship between Japan and Quảng Nam.

These ties date back more than 400 years, when Japanese traders on the first merchant ships visited Hội An.

He stressed that long traditional friendship was rooted in the 17th-century wedding of Vietnamese Princess Ngọc Hoa to Japanese businessman Araki Sotaro.

Also in the future, national flag carrier, Vietnam Airlines are keen to launch more direct flights connecting Đà Nẵng City with Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Takaaki Hisano, head of the promotions office of Nagasaki logistics group, said tourism information about Việt Nam and central Việt Nam, including Đà Nẵng and Quảng Nam, is still limited.

The Japanese bridge, or Chùa Cầu, is an iconic symbol of Japan and Việt Nam friendship from 400 years ago. VNS Photo Công Thành

He said the Expo was an opportunity for travel agencies in Nagasaki to learn from Vietnamese partners.

A representative from Nagasaki Prefecture Tourism Board said many Japanese people in Nagasaki wish to visit Quảng Nam, homeland of the Vietnamese Princess Ngọc Hoa, after the premiere of the Opera ‘Princess Anio’ was also introduced in Japan.

But a lack of direct flights from Japan to central Việt Nam is sometimes seen as a barrier to limit travellers, with many reluctant to transit through other countries. 

Quảng Nam would build positive tour links with localities in Japan with various key products including MICE and golf, as well as calling for more investment from Japan in eco-tour and smart travel, education and hi-tech medical care service. 

Quảng Nam, home to the UNESCO-recognised world heritage sites of Hội An ancient town and Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary, hosted 47,000 Japanese arrivals in 2024.

Đà Nẵng City alone has inked memorandums of understanding on investment and co-operation with Yokohama, Kawasaki and Sakai, and built relationships with 15 other cities in Japan. VNS