Japanese hotels are all geared up to send foreign visitors to smaller towns

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

As more visitors in Japan left the beaten path, new hotels tailored for international visitors are coming to smaller cities once considered just a blip on the radar.

 
The visitor number returning to the country has almost tripled in the last five years, prompting more sightseeing at lesser-known destinations.

 
Foreign visitors staying outside the three largest metropolitan areas of Japan like greater Tokyo, greater Nagoya and the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe triangle, accounted for over 40% of the total for the first time in 2017. As guests in the three areas increased 12%, those outside increased 19%, the Japan Tourism Agency explained.

 
In the expectation of capturing the growing demand, Daiwa House Industry will introduce a new hotel brand via subsidiary Daiwa Resort, hoping half of its guests from abroad. It will hire employees from abroad to put together a staff capable of speaking about five languages altogether.

 
Daiwa House is all set to open a 180-room hotel in fall 2019 at Kanazawa, a city on the Sea of Japan coast known for a castle and Kenrokuen. It’s considered as one of the country’s three most beautiful gardens.

 
Also, plans to call for a spring 2020 launch of a roughly 230-room hotel in Nara, a prehistoric city outside Kyoto that has housed a temple featuring a gigantic Buddha statue and free-roaming deer. The company will consider expanding into other cities as well.

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