 Poster: A snowHead
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A major downturn in numbers skiing or boarding in Japan and it's impact on the hotels and resort managements.
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SHIGA KOGEN, Japan The Japanese Alps sparkled in the sun after fresh powder dusted this ski resort, the largest in Asia. But it was a weekday morning and almost 20 percent of the 71 lifts were closed. A long string of chairs climbing one mountain flank was empty, except for one black-clad figure.
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Twenty years ago, Japan's ski resorts resembled Tokyo Station on the slopes. Today, the new image could be someone skiing alone. Despite abundant snow, fresh air and stunning mountain views, the number of skiers in Japan, the world's second-largest skiing nation, has dropped in half over the past decade |
Interesting 3 page article comparing the problems in Japanese snowsports with the successes in USA and looking at how the Japanese golf courses tackled a similar downturn in popularity. From the International Herald Tribune
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"Some of the Japanese mountains will close, and they should," said Roger Donazzan, executive chairman of Harmony Resorts Niseko, a private Australian company that bought Hokkaido's Niseko area last fall.
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Through 2010, Donazzan plans to invest about $200 million to create a new base at the mountain village, capable of sleeping 8,000 visitors.
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Although Japan's government has set a goal of doubling foreign visitors by 2010, the concept of catering to foreign skiers is still alien to many ski area managers.
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"By next season, almost all our trail maps, signs, and menus will be in English and Japanese," Donazzan said of Niseko. "Then we are going to add Korean and Chinese."
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A next step will be to promote skiing to South Koreans, where an estimated 4 million skiers crowd every winter into only 13 ski resorts.
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The big prize would be China, where an estimated 1 to 2 million people now are skiing. |
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