Forum To Call For Japanese Investment In Vietnam Tourism

A forum appealing for investment into the Vietnamese tourism market took place in Tokyo on November 25

Among those participants were Nguyen Phu Binh, Vietnamese ambassador to Japan, Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of HCM City People’s Committee, representatives of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and businesses from HCM City. Saigontourist was the main organizer of the forum. On the Japanese side, there were a representatives from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and around 70 businesses concerned with the Vietnamese market.

“HCM City has been and will always be the choice for investors with a strategic vision. The cooperation for investment in Vietnam’s tourism market between Vietnamese and Japanese enterprises will bring about new and successful outcomes,” Nguyen Huu Tho, general director of Saigontourist, vice chairman of the Vietnam Tourism Association and chairman of the HCM City Tourism Association, addressed the Japanese investors in his opening speech at the forum.

At the forum, Saigontourist introduced to investors 12 projects of hotels, resorts and luxury complexes. Tho said he hoped Saigontourist would become a long-term trusted partner of Japanese businesses with strong capital and management, helping to boost the number of Japanese tourists visiting Vietnam and HCM City.

In the development strategy for 2010-2015, Saigontourist will focus on investing in 4,000 additional hotel rooms, resorts, leisure and entertainment complexes, conference centers and marinas of international five-star standard. These are concentrated in HCM City and other main tourist provinces and cities with strength in sea tourism, beautiful sceneries and unique local cultures. Saigontourist receives detailed guidance and special attention from the Government, HCM City leaders as well as other local authorities.

HCM City will always provide the best conditions to attract Japanese investors in tourism and tourism real estate, Nguyen Thi Hong said.

In the 2010 estimation, there will be about three million foreign tourists coming to HCM City, the figure for 2015 is estimated to reach five million. This year Vietnamese tourism was forecast to receive over 4.5 million foreign tourists, with eight million tourists and business visitors predicted for 2015.
Founded in 1975, Saigontourist is currently the biggest tourism corporation in Vietnam, manages over 100 travel companies, hotels, resorts, convention centers, leisure and entertainment complexes. Saigontourist has always been a trusted partner by foreign investors whether they need to research or approach the Vietnamese market.
Do Thi Du Lich Can Gio Joint Stock Co. also hosted a session to introduce Saigon Sunbay project to foreign investors construction of the first phase of Saigon Sunbay on 151 hectares in HCM City’s Can Gio District is scheduled for the first quarter of 2011. This stage will focus on land leveling with infrastructure to be completed by 2013.

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Tourism targets Japanese market

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has set a plan to
attract 1 million tourists from Japan , its key market, by 2015.

The target was announced by Deputy General Director Hoang Thi Diep of
VNAT at a working session of the Vietnam-Japan Tourism Cooperation
Committee in Hanoi on November 11.

Diep,
co-chair of the session, the third of its kind so far, also made public a
target to turn Vietnam into a top-five favourite destination of
Japanese tourists.

To reach that end, the
hospitality watchdog plans to open a representative office in Japan ,
conduct market surveys and promote the national tourist potential
through international and Japanese mass media.

VNAT will also organise cultural tourist events in a number of Japanese
cities and arrange field trips into Vietnam for travel agents and
press people from Japan .

Maeda Ryuhei, General
Director of the Department of Planning and Policy Making under the
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, who co-chaired
the meeting, pledged willingness to cooperate with Vietnam in
strengthening the exchange of tourists between the two countries.

Maeda said the number of Japanese arrivals in Vietnam was limited
at 360,000 in 2009, making up just 2.4 percent of Japanese out-bound
tourists. Meanwhile, with merely 230,000 arrivals in Japan in the
first seven months of the year, Vietnamese tourists accounted for just
0.4 percent of international arrivals in the Cherry Blossom nation.

As a result, the two parties should promote the tourism campaign in
each others market, said the Japanese senior tourist expert.

High on the meeting’s agenda was bilateral cooperation in exchange of
tourists, investment in tourism and human resource development in the
hospitality industry.

The first and second
meetings took place in the French-styled mountain resort city of Da Lat
in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong in 2005 and Tokyo ,
Japan in 2008.

Japan is among the top ten
markets of the Vietnamese tourism sector, with 355,000 arrivals in
Vietnam in the first 10 months of the year, representing a
year-on-year increase of over 22 percent. The figure is expected to
surpass 431,000 for the whole of 2010, reported VNAT./.

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Culture sharing at Vietnam-Japan Day

The Consulate General of Japan in HCMC in collaboration with the HCMC Youth’s Cultural House is putting on a show of Japanese culture for Japan-Vietnam Day at the HCMC Youth’s Cultural House  in HCMC’s District 1 on September 12.

A diverse Japanese cultural program will include a performance of traditional Japanese theater by students, Kendo performance, origami demonstration, Japanese toys, exhibition of Japanese comic books and a Cosplay show.

The highlight of the program this year is a demonstration and workshop on Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.

People attending the workshop will learn about the origin, history and style of Ikebana flower arranging under instruction of Professor Sasaki Yasihito, and the work of some of Japan’s top Ikebana artists, will be on display.

You can also meet Vietnamese artists who have performed in Japan such as meritorious artist Thanh Loc, director Nguyen Quang Dung, song writer Duc Tri, visual artist Nhu Huy, singers Hien Thuc, Minh Thu and Phu Sa band. The artists will share about there experience of performing in Japan.

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