JAPAN'S JTB TO CREATE VIETNAMESE TOURISM JOINT VENTURE

TOKYO, Apr 15, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- -- Japan's leading travel agency JTB Corp. plans to establish a joint venture in Vietnam to grow its tourism operations in the Southeast Asian nation.

The joint venture with Vietnamese travel firm T&T Co. will start operating next month. JTB will hold a 51 per cent stake in the company, which will be capitalized at US$500,000, or some 50 million yen. It will have offices in Ho Chi Minh City as well as Hanoi, and employ 125.

T&T will sell its inbound-tourist operations to the joint venture, which will cater to Japanese visitors to Vietnam and its neighbors, including Cambodia and Laos. The joint venture will also expand offerings for European and Russian tourists. It will handle hotels and other travel arrangements as well as sell airplane tickets.

Although the joint venture cannot handle overseas travel by Vietnamese tourists due to foreign-ownership restrictions, it will work to build its presence in the lead-up to anticipated deregulation in the future.

Just 267,000 Japanese visited Vietnam in 2004. But the number rose to 383,000 in 2006. By establishing a center in Vietnam, JTB hopes to arrange tours for 73,000 travelers there in fiscal 2012, up 50 per cent from the current level.

(Nikkei)

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