Quang Ninh targets Japanese tourists

Quang Ninh encourages tourism businesses to create new products that are unique to the area

Promoting sustainable development

Tourism has grown in terms of both quality and quantity in recent years as a key economic sector of Quang Ninh Province. However, the number of foreign tourists, especially from Japan, to Quang Ninh remains small and most of them just have short stay in the province. Meanwhile, Japanese tourists are willing to pay for quality products and services. Therefore, in the time to come Quang Ninh will need to improve the quality of tourism products and services according to international standards and pay greater attention to protecting the environment in order to promote tourism development in a sustainable manner and attract more foreign visitors. Tourism businesses need to be encouraged to create new and unique products.

Provincial People’s Committee Vice Chairman Vu Van Dien said the conference offered a chance to boost cooperation between Vietnamese and Japanese businesses. In the recent period, political, economic, and cultural relations between Vietnam and Japan have improved through visits by leaders of the two countries. Japan currently is one of the major foreign investors in Vietnam.

The number of Japanese tourists coming to Vietnam is relatively high, but Japanese tourists to Quang Ninh account for just five percent of the total number of foreign tourists to Vietnam annually. Through the conference, the province wished to learn from Japanese experiences and promote bilateral cooperation in tourism infrastructure development, human resource training, tourism development management, and environmental protection.

Kubo Shigeto, Special Consultant to the Japan National Tourism Organization, said Ha Long was an attractive destination for Japanese tourists. However, to attract more Japanese visitors and encourage them to stay longer in Ha Long, Quang Ninh Province and local tourism businesses needed to increase advertising and bring into play the efficiency of the Tourism Advisory Board, he added.

A 10-15 percent increase expected

Many Japanese tourism and environmental experts and investors shared the opinion that Quang Ninh needed to pay greater attention to the marine environment. They said the province needed to pay special attention to improving public awareness about the importance of the marine environment to life, create a wider range of tourism products so that visitors to the Ha Long Bay can enjoy longer stay here even when the weather is not good, and ensure that tourists do not fall victim to accidents at sea.

To encourage Japanese tourists to have longer stay in Quang Ninh, most conference participants agreed that the province needed to increase investment in accommodation services, improve the quality of human resources, and ensure food safety and environmental hygiene. Japanese tourists to Quang Ninh are expected to account for 10-15 percent of the total number of foreign tourists to Vietnam in the near future.

Pham Tiep