Interest in overseas travel is growing in Vietnam, where the middle class continues to expand. With tour prices falling, Japan ranks as the number one "country women want to visit," particularly among women in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), Vietnamese visitors to Japan from January to October this year reached approximately 160,000, a 51.5% increase compared to the same period last year, already surpassing the full-year 2014 figure (124,000).
One reason cited by local travel agency representatives is the perceived affordability of tour packages. "In 2013, a tour cost 40 million dong (about ¥210,000), but now they've rapidly dropped to 20-30 million dong," they explained. The simplification of visa procedures in 2014 has also boosted travel to Japan.
According to regular surveys by Intage (Tokyo), the percentage of female respondents aged 20-59 in Ho Chi Minh City who traveled abroad in the past six months has increased annually: from 3.3% in 2012 to 5.2% in 2014, and 8.4% in the latest survey. In the average responses for "countries they would like to visit" in 2014 and 2015, 46.1% chose Japan, surpassing Singapore (45.6%), the United States (37.1%), Thailand (36.6%), and South Korea (35.5%).
Currently, travelers to Japan are primarily affluent individuals, and one characteristic of Vietnamese travelers is their "high spending on shopping." The custom of buying souvenirs for friends and relatives remains deeply ingrained.
According to JNTO data, the average travel expenditure per Vietnamese visitor to Japan is ¥237,688, ranking first and surpassing travelers from China (¥231,753) and Australia (¥227,823).
