Konnichiwa, China: Japan’s tourism industry says hello to Chinese investment
Mainland companies used to strike deals with hotels and bus companies, but amid a flood of visitors, they now prefer takeovers
One deal by a Chinese company in Japan has snowballed into an avalanche of interest.
The phone of Beijing-based investment consultant Takahiro Shirono has been ringing off the hook since Shanghai-based Yuyuan Tourist Mart announced it was splashing out 18.3 billion yen (HK$1.2 billion) to buy the remaining stake of a major ski resort in Hokkaido in November.
“Chinese investors were curious about what attracted a big Chinese company to make such a huge investment in Japan,” China Strategy Group chief executive Shirono said.
Yuyuan’s purchase of the resort, with its 757 rooms, 25 ski trails and 18-hole golf course, is just one mainland company’s attempt to tap into demand from the surging numbers of Chinese visitors.
Two weeks earlier, Spring Group, the parent company of Shanghai-based Spring Airlines, said it was teaming up with a local partner to launch a new hotel brand in Japan. Its plans are to spend more than 20 billion yen to build up to 20 hotels in Japan’s major tourism hot spots.
Then late last month Shanghai-based real estate company Greenland Group said it would join forces with Laox, Japan’s biggest duty-free chain, in a US$60 million deal to buy a Chiba-based commercial complex, a move Greenland said would help meet demand for shopping and accommodation from Chinese tourists.