The city of Beppu in western Japan is famous for its hot springs, with hotels and resorts competing to attract tourists to an area renowned for sights like the Hells of Beppu, a series of colored and super-hot natural pools.
As the numbers of Japanese visiting the resorts plateaus, local and international hotel chains are expanding to target the boom in foreign tourists.
Tourist numbers dipped in 2016 after an earthquake in nearby Kumamoto, but recovered to a record number last year. South Koreans have driven the 130 percent increase in foreigners staying in Beppu over the past five years.
In the five years of economic revitalization efforts under Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the boom in inbound tourism has been a notable success, while other areas like wage growth and inflation have had mixed results. Foreign tourist numbers have increased so much that it has helped to shrink the chronic deficits in Japan’s services account.
The effect in Beppu is seen clearly in investment in hotels.
InterContinental Hotels Group is one of the businesses looking to take advantage of this. Its joint venture with All Nippon Airways is to open a new 89-room luxury hotel next year.
“Beppu is one of the world’s most famous hot springs resorts, but it didn’t have a luxury hotel of international fame,” ING ANA Hotels Group Japan chief executive Hans Heijligers said. “The wealthy Japanese market is very attractive, and inbound tourism is also booming.”
Luxury domestic hotel chain Hoshino Resorts is building a new hotel and Oedo Onsen refurbished an older hotel, which opened in July last year. The current boom in hotels is going to increase the number of rooms in the city from 4,400 to 5,030 by next year, the Beppu City Ryokan and Hotel Association said.
With five matches for next year’s Rugby World Cup being played in neighboring Oita City, those rooms might be needed.
The largest hotel in the city is not worried about the new investment and competition.
“It’s an attractive town, and we welcome it. We can make money if they come and make it even more attractive,” said Koichi Sasaki, general manager of Suginoi Hotel and Resort, which has 647 rooms.
The hotel has had an occupancy rate of 100 percent since 2014, and is renovating its conference space.
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