Vietnam tourism industry takes off

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Posted 9:35AM on Tuesday, March 26, 2002

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM - With a waist-deep bow and a perky ``Irasshaimase,'' Nguyen Thi Nhung warmly greets the small group of young Japanese women who step inside her silks and crafts shop on Dong Khoi Street, the city's shopper's lane. Welcome, indeed. It's a far cry from the years of war when French troops, and later Americans, fought the Viet Cong from the 1940s to 1975. Even as the tourism industry worldwide took a huge hit in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, Vietnam actually recorded a jump in its tourism figures. A record 2.3 million foreign visitors - an 8.9 percent increase compared to the previous year - came to Vietnam in 2001. Topping the list were mainland Chinese at 676,000, a 7.9 percent increase from the previous year, followed by 230,000 Americans, a 10.4 percent increase. However, it was the record 205,000 visitors from Japan - a whopping 34.3 percent increase over the year before - who've made the biggest impact. Their presence in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, has led to a visible change in the tourist-heavy downtown district that houses the colonial-era Opera House and City Hall. Dozens of trendy restaurants, shops, and cafes now cater specifically to Japanese, with signs, menus, and staff completely conversant in Japanese. It's a phenomenon largely driven by female tourists on holiday shopping trips, said Harumitsu Hida, Japan's deputy consul general in Ho Chi Minh City. ``Young Japanese women are interested in the goods - garments, handbags, china, ao dais (Vietnamese dresses),'' he said. Lugging several shopping bags on her arm, Keiko Watanabe, 24, of Tokyo, put it succinctly during a quick coffee break. ``Saigon is very cute. The shopping is good and very cheap. I told my friends, and they wanted to come with me. We feel very safe here,'' she said. Watanabe is on her second trip to Ho Chi Minh City, this time bringing along two friends. Many Vietnamese handicrafts are comparable in quality to those in Japan, at a fraction of the cost. Already enjoying a healthy buzz on the tourist circuit, Vietnam has been basking in its recent ranking as the safest and most stable destination in Asia - above Hong Kong, Australia, and Taiwan - in a survey of regional tourism officials taken in the aftermath of Sept. 11. A combination of authoritarian security measures and the near lack of a Muslim population made it the least likely to be exposed to the social unrest plaguing some of its neighbors, said the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy. Others have come to that conclusion as well. Vietnam only saw a brief slowdown following the U.S. terrorist attacks. Although foreign arrivals dropped by 12 percent in October, they picked up again in November and December. For the year, tourism revenues rose 12.1 percent to $714 million. With the growing interest by Chinese, Americans, and particularly the Japanese, the country's fledgling tourism industry is well on its way, said Tran Thi Ngoc Dzung, deputy director of SaigonTourist, Vietnam's largest tour operator. The company recorded a 200 percent increase in the number of Japanese clients booking tours last year. ``Saigonese have a very keen business sense,'' said Dzung. ``We can adapt to anything. When we had a lot of French tourists, we learned to speak French. Then everyone learned English. Now we have Japanese coming, so we are learning to speak Japanese.'' Courting the Japanese tourist has turned into a healthy business proposition, she said. ``The Japanese have become very important for us. They are the biggest spenders. They can spend $100 to $200 in just one shop. I myself have seen people spend $ 1,000 to $2,000 at a time,'' she said. Nearly 30 percent of SaigonTourist's 6,000 workers have taken Japanese language training, Dzung said. Of the company's 53 hotels, about 13 specifically cater to Japanese tourists, she said. The Japanese consulate estimates that some 8,000 people are currently studying Japanese at the 20 schools in the city. For the last year and a half, salesclerk Nhung has been one of those taking intensive Japanese language training. ``We are not required to learn Japanese but it's better if we can speak a little with our customers,'' she said, before turning to close a deal with a shopper in fluent Japanese.