Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi Promotion Agency (HPA) will launch a tourism promotion programme in Japan and join the Tourism Expo Japan (JATA) 2019 in Osaka later this month, aiming to further exploit the nearly 127 million-strong market.

Running from October 21-28, JATA 2019 is a chance for Hanoi to introduce its latest tourism products and services to Japanese travel firms and tourists, and seek partnership with management agencies, associations and travel companies of Japan, thus drawing more Japanese visitors.

The HPA booth, themed “Hanoi – a safe, friendly, high quality and attractive tourist destination,” will highlight the culture and tourism potential of Hanoi and Vietnam, along with main tourism products of the city such as the Hoan Kiem Lake – Old Quarter pedestrian streets, trade village tourism and eco-tourism.

Products of localities partnering with Hanoi will be introduced, along with major tourism events in Hanoi, such as the F1 grand prix in April 2020 and SEA Games 2021.

Artists from the Thang Long puppetry theatre will also perform during the exhibition. The HPA delegation will work with the Vietnamese Embassy, the Japanese Tourism Association and the local government of Osaka to promote tourism in the country.

Statistics from the Hanoi Department of Tourism, in 2018, the capital city welcomed nearly 304,000 Japanese tourists, a surge of 105 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, more than 4.7 million foreign tourists chose Hanoi as their destination in the first nine months of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 10.1 percent.

The capital city hosted a total 21.5 million visitors in the period, up 9.5 percent against the same period last year and equivalent to 74.46 percent of this year’s plan. There were more than 16.8 million domestic holidaymakers, up 9.3 percent year-on-year.

Local tourism revenue reached 74.7 trillion VND (3.2 billion USD) in the nine months, up 30.9 percent and nearing 72 percent of the yearly plan.

Meanwhile, Hanoi’s hotels recorded an estimated occupancy rate of 70.5 percent, up 6.2 percent, serving visitors mostly from the Republic of Korea, China and Japan.

The city is striving for 29 million tourists and 103 trillion VND in tourism revenue in 2019.

This year, Hanoi was again listed in various tourism rankings. Japan’s All Nippon Airways included the city among the 26 best Asian cities for a combination of business and leisure. The capital city was ranked fourth among the 25 destinations in Asia and 15th among the 25 destinations in the world in 2019 by TripAdvisor. Most recently, it was named in the Cable News Network (CNN)'s list of the 17 best places in Asia.

In the list of the top 100 city destinations 2018 released by Euromonitor International, Hanoi ranked fourth among capital cities in Southeast Asia in terms of foreign tourist numbers, following Bangkok (23.69 million), Singapore (18.55 million) and Kuala Lumpur (13.43 million).

To bolster tourism, Hanoi considers improving the quality of destinations and developing infrastructure and tourism products as important tasks.

The capital plans to attract investment to build shopping centres and accelerate major projects like the Kim Quy culture, tourism and entertainment park in Dong Anh district, the horse racing and entertainment complex in Soc Son district, and the Hanoi Museum. It will boost preservation projects at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long, Bat Trang pottery village and Van Phuc silk village.

Efforts are also being made to develop 20 – 30 high-quality tourist sites across the city. Additionally, the values of local cultural heritages and traditional villages will be brought into play to turn them into attractive places of interest.

Hanoi is planning to augment preparations for upcoming big sports events such as Formula One racing and the 31st Southeast Asian Games to attract visitors.

Additionally, it will also make use of local culinary culture and promote MICE tourism as well as tourism products based on the strengths of its localities.

The Vietnamese capital is working to develop high-end accommodation facilities.

Director of the Tourism Department Tran Duc Hai said the municipal People’s Committee has approved in principle 75 high-end accommodation projects with nearly 20,000 rooms. As of June this year, there were 3,499 accommodation establishments with 60,812 rooms in the city, including 67 hotels rated three to five stars with 10,004 rooms and seven condotel complexes rated four to five stars with 1,349 rooms.

Cooperation in tourism development is also a key task of the sector, he said, noting that his department is carrying out the promotion cooperation programme for 2019-2024 with TV channel CNN International.

It will also take part in meetings of the Council for Promotion of Tourism in Asia and cooperation activities of the Tourism Promotion Organisation for Asian-Pacific Cities.

Coordination with airlines, domestic and foreign media, embassies, international organisations and travel companies will be strengthened to hold trips for businesses and reporters from key markets, according to the Tourism Department./.