On January 4, Mr. Yoshida Kenji - Head of the Representative Office of the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) in Vietnam - spoke out about the earthquake disaster that occurred in Japan in the first days of the new year and said that unfortunately the incidents caused anxiety among tourists about traveling to the land of cherry blossoms.
Regarding the current situation in Japan, Mr. Yoshida Kenji said that in affected areas, some events or mass activities are being temporarily suspended, but across the country, sports and music events are still being held as planned.
"In Japan, there has been no announcement of quarantine, travel restrictions or suspension of activities or events. Even in affected areas, public transport has begun to operate normally again," said a representative of JNTO in Vietnam.
Tour to Japan to welcome the New Year, experience snow games that are popular with Vietnamese people - Photo: NGUYEN MINH
From a safety perspective, the country's Hydrometeorological Department has called for attention to the possibility of an earthquake of the same scale occurring within the next week, so it is still necessary to continue monitoring.
JNTO in Vietnam also said they will continue to synthesize information from Japan through many sources, especially from JNTO headquarters in Tokyo, and update information to tourists and Vietnamese people.
Regarding the aviation incident that occurred at Tokyo International Airport (Haneda Airport) on January 2, JNTO said that the Transportation Safety Committee, the Police Department, and experts are investigating the cause of the incident and will proactively provide the most accurate information.
No customers have recorded any postponement or cancellation of tours to Japan.
Meanwhile, some Vietnamese travel and tourism companies said that there are many Vietnamese tourist groups traveling to destinations in Japan at this time and they are all safe.
A representative of Vietravel said that when the earthquakes occurred in the first two days of the new year, the company had 500 customers visiting different cities in Japan. Of these, about 20 customers went to the ancient village of Shirakawago, Gifu province - about 350km from Tokyo.
Most of the tourist groups had sightseeing itineraries in major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Mount Fuji, Matsuyama, Nagoya, all of which are located in the southeastern region of Japan, so they were not much affected or only felt slight aftershocks from the earthquakes.
The company assures that tourists are still safe, and the tour schedule has not changed much due to the natural disaster. Up to now, many Vietravel groups have finished their tours and returned to Vietnam.
"We have worked with partners in Japan to promptly come up with a response plan and prepare a calm mindset to best serve customers on tour. The company is ready to support tourists who purchased Japan tours to change their tour schedule to a more suitable time or switch to tour routes in the Southeast Asian and Northeast Asian markets," said a Vietravel representative.
Similarly, businesses with strengths in exploiting tours to Japan during the Lunar New Year and cherry blossom viewing tours in 2024 such as Saigontourist Travel, Benthanh Tourist, Vietluxtour... also said that they have not recorded any cases of tourist groups wanting to cancel or postpone their tours.
According to Ms. Doan Thi Thanh Tra - Marketing Director of Saigontourist Travel, tours to Japan are still open for sale and customers are still booking tours before the Lunar New Year. Travel companies will stop operating tours when there are warnings from Japanese authorities about natural disasters.
Currently, Vietnamese businesses are still closely following the actual situation of the locality through official information updated from Japan, so tours to Japan are still open for sale and departing as planned.
According to businesses, most of the tours that are popular with Vietnamese people are not located near the areas affected by the earthquakes in recent days.
Recently, JNTO announced that Vietnamese visitors to Japan in the first 11 months of 2023 surpassed the record of 2019.
Accordingly, the number of visitors to Japan from Vietnam in the period from January to November 2023 reached 536,800, surpassing the record number of 495,051 people achieved in 2019 and setting an all-time high.
