HCM CITY— The number of Japanese tourists visiting Việt Nam has only grown modestly in recent years despite a sharp increase in the number of international tourist arrivals, according to the Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism.

The number of visitors from China, the largest market for Việt Nam’s tourism sector, and South Korea, the second-largest, has increased dramatically in the past few years.

Though the number of Japanese tourist arrivals last year was a record 800,000, it represented only an 8 per cent increase from the previous year.

Last year the number of Chinese tourist arrivals rose by 48 per cent to more than 4 million.

There were more than 2.4 million from South Korea, up 56.4 per cent.

In the first five months of this year the country welcomed more than 344,000 Japanese tourists, up 6 per cent year-on-year, while the number from China and South Korea totalled 2.1 million and 1.4 million, up 37 per cent and 62 per cent.

Tourism authorities attributed the modest growth to several issues such as the shortage of Japanese-speaking tour guides at popular tourist destinations and the absence of Vietnamese Tourism Agency’s representative offices in Japan.

The Việt Nam National Administration of Tourism plans to organise some marketing and promotion programmes in Japan this year to attract more tourists.

Last month the administration and the Japanese embassy in Hà Nội organised a workshop on tourism co-operation between the two countries.

Next September, together with travel firms and provincial tourism promotion centres, it will organise road shows in Sapporo, Kanagawa, Fukuoka, and Osaka cities in Japan. — VNS