On May 27, Vice Chairwoman Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai, received Mr. Tanaka Hiroshi, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam.
At the meeting, Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai congratulated Mr. Tanaka Hiroshi on his new assignment and expressed confidence that, with his experience, he will continue to make positive contributions to promoting tourism cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.
She affirmed the strong and long-standing partnership between the two countries, noting that tourism cooperation has recently shown clear positive momentum, with steady growth in both Vietnamese visitors to Japan and Japanese visitors to Vietnam. Japan remains one of Vietnam’s key source markets. The Vietnam National Authority of Tourism, she emphasized, stands ready to work closely with the Japanese side to further promote tourism exchange and growth.
She also proposed that both sides soon develop a concrete coordination plan for the coming period to jointly discuss and agree on practical measures, ensuring more focused, substantive, and effective implementation of tourism cooperation initiatives.
According to Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Hoa Mai, the parallel growth trends in outbound Vietnamese tourism to Japan and inbound Japanese tourism to Vietnam provide a solid foundation for deeper cooperation in the time ahead. Tourism collaboration, she noted, not only helps increase visitor numbers and spending, thereby contributing to economic growth, but also plays a vital role in strengthening people-to-people exchanges, enhancing mutual understanding, and laying a broader foundation for socio-economic cooperation between Vietnam and Japan.
She further highlighted that Vietnam – Japan relations are expanding across multiple areas, including technology, science, and digital transformation. In this context, she stressed that local-to-local cooperation has emerged as a highly effective and positive model that should be further promoted in the tourism sector to enhance connectivity and foster stronger partnerships between localities of both countries.
At the meeting, First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam, Tanaka Hiroshi, expressed his appreciation to the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism for its participation in the Japan – Vietnam Tourism Promotion Seminar organized by the Embassy of Japan in March. He also conveyed his hope to continue close coordination with the Vietnam National Authority of Tourism in promoting tourism exchanges and cooperation activities between the two countries in the coming period.
Mr. Tanaka shared his positive impressions of Vietnam’s cuisine and tourist destinations, and highly valued the growing cooperation between localities of Vietnam and Japan in recent years. He expressed Japan’s expectation that local-level collaboration will continue to be strengthened, further contributing to the sustainable development of bilateral tourism ties.
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