Japanese tourists recover slowly, Vietnamese flock to Japan to see cherry blossoms

According to the General Department of Tourism , in the whole year of 2022, Vietnam only welcomed 128,764 Japanese visitors, much lower, only about 1/10 compared to before Covid-19 (in 2019, it was nearly 1 million visitors).

In the first 3 months of this year, this number was only 117,000 visitors. According to the assessment of the General Department of Tourism, despite the good growth rate of over 28.5%, the number of visitors is still small compared to the first quarter of 2029 with 463,000 visitors. Thus, the recovery rate of Japanese visitors compared to before the epidemic is still very slow, only about 24%.

Meanwhile, China, Japan and South Korea have long been the three key Northeast Asian markets, leading in the number of visitors to Vietnam.

In the period 2015-2019, the number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam increased 1.4 times, from 671,000 (2015) to 952,000 (2019), an average increase of 9.1%/year.

Japanese visitors to Vietnam in the period 2015-2019 (Source: General Statistics Office)

Explaining the small number of Japanese visitors to Vietnam after the pandemic, Mr. Nguyen Van Tan, General Director of JTB-TNT Co., Ltd. - a unit in the top 3 largest Japanese tourist receiving enterprises in Vietnam - said that Japanese people are very cautious about the Covid epidemic situation, because Japan also lifted restrictions more slowly than other countries.

The economic difficulties in Japan have affected people's lives, especially the devaluation of the Yen, which has increased the cost of tourism. Not only Vietnam, the number of tourists to Thailand and Singapore - two destinations that compete strongly with Vietnam - also does not have many Japanese visitors, he shared with PV. VietNamNet .

In addition to the above objective reasons, the fact that the service system chain of Vietnam's tourism industry has not yet recovered after the epidemic (hotels, restaurants, tour guides) is facing difficulties in quoting, booking - confirming, etc. This is also the reason why the number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam is growing slowly.

Vietnamese people going to Japan exceed before Covid-19 pandemic

On the other hand, Japan is also a favorite destination for Vietnamese tourists.

After nearly 3 years of being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, since the beginning of this year, Vietnamese people have flocked to travel to Japan, even though the country recently tightened visa issuance.

The Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) reported that the number of Vietnamese visitors to Japan in February 2023 reached 55,800, the second consecutive month exceeding 50,000. This is also the highest result ever in terms of monthly units, surpassing the 55,295 arrivals achieved in April 2019.

Vietnamese tourists in Japan during cherry blossom season (Photo: Dream Travel)

In the first two months of the year, the number of Vietnamese visitors to Japan far exceeded that before the Covid-19 pandemic with 107,300 arrivals, an increase of 43.5% over the same period in 2019 (74,752 arrivals). To date, flights between Vietnam and Japan have recovered 95% compared to before the pandemic.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa, Head of Japan Tourism Department of Dream Travel, said that during the cherry blossom season (from February 14 to the end of April 2023), her company served about 500 Vietnamese tourists traveling to Japan. Up to now, the company has closed the April 30-May 1 tour and switched to selling summer tours.

However, since the end of March, Ms. Hoa has found it more difficult to apply for group visas for tour guests. The visa approval time has been longer.

Ms. Hoa cited that if submitting the application in Ho Chi Minh City, when proving financial resources, the Japanese side requires the customer to have a savings book worth 100 million VND, with a term of at least 3 months before the time of application submission, so many people cannot meet the requirement.

Furthermore, in the past, when assembling a group of individual guests, a special invitation was used, and the travel agency could submit documents multiple times until the group had 30 people. But now, Japan requires only one submission for the entire group of 30 guests. If by any chance, one application requires additional personal information, photos, etc., all 30 applications will be delayed.

This affects the flight date (due to the deposit), tour itinerary,... forcing the travel agency to prepare visa documents very carefully, without mistakes allowed.

According to Mr. Pham Van Bay, Deputy Director of Vietravel Hanoi branch, another reason is that Japan is in the process of re-examining the system of enterprises designated to issue visas to see if they have the capacity to operate travel services after the Covid-19 pandemic, causing the visa application time to increase to about 10 days, instead of 6 days as before.

Traveling 4/30-5/1: Flocking to go abroad, 'hot' tours are closed

People flocked to travel abroad during the April 30-May 1 holiday, accounting for 2/3 of the number of customers at travel agencies. Some tours such as to Japan, Korea,... European countries have closed their books and stopped accepting customers.

Flight ticket prices for the April 30 holiday have skyrocketed, with some flights jumping to over 13 million VND.

The high demand for travel during the upcoming 4/30-5/1 holiday has caused airfares to skyrocket every day. Some flights are priced as high as over 13.2 million VND/ticket.

Why are there a record number of Vietnamese tourists traveling to Japan? They can go dozens of times without getting bored.

Although the cost is expensive and visa procedures are difficult, Japan still attracts foreign visitors, including a large number of Vietnamese visitors, because of its short flight time, diverse nature and culture, modern and civilized services, etc.

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