The Vietnam Festa in Kanagawa 2017, running from September 15-17, is one of the biggest Vietnamese festivals in Japan that provides the country an opportunity to introduce its culture and attract more tourists from Japan.
Thien said that the good relations between the two countries have smoothed the way for tourism development, and Japan is among Vietnam’s key tourism market.
The number of Vietnamese visitors to Japan jumped from 4,000 in 2010 to 204,000 last year while Japanese tourist arrivals in Vietnam have also been on the rise, expected to hit 1 million annually, according to Thien.
He hoped that more Japanese visitors will come to Vietnam after the festival.
Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture Kuroiwa Yuji, for his part, said this year’s festival is bigger than last year’s and a Vietnamese travel expo is held on the sidelines of the festival.
Thien and Kuroiwa Yuji agreed to deepen the bilateral cooperation in sports, especially when Japan will be the host of Olympics in 2020.
Themed “FEEL Vietnam”, the 2017 Vietnam Festa aims to attract more than 400,000 visitors, an ambitious number that surpasses its 2015 record.
The festival will feature a host of cultural activities, including water puppetry performance, musical concerts, talks about Vietnam and the display of Vietnamese flower paintings and lanterns.
