Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were coated with undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) or 5 wt% gallium-incorporated ZnO (GZO) using various deposition conditions. The CNTs were directly grown on conical-type tungsten substrates at $700^{circ}C$ using inductively coupled plasma-chemical vapor deposition. The pulsed laser deposition technique was used to deposit the ZnO and GZO thin films with very low stress. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy were used to monitor the variations in the morphology and microstructure of CNTs prior to and after ZnO or GZO coating. The formation of ZnO and GZO films on CNTs was confirmed using energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy. In comparison to the as-grown (uncoated) CNT emitter, the CNT emitter that was coated with a thin (10 nm) GZO film showed remarkably improved field emission characteristics, such as the emission current of $325;{mu}A$ at 1 kV and the threshold field of $1.96;V/{mu}m$ at $0.1;{mu}A$, and it also exhibited the highly stable operation of emission current up to 40 h.