Hokkaidough 4 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Then again I might be totally wrong. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 Maybe we can get some foreign companies to close a few more uneconomic ones down. Hopefully without owing folk money in the process! Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 I don't know the story Hokkaidough. Seems no-one really knows what's going on though I presume something will have to be announced soon. Link to post Share on other sites
sanjo 2 Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 From what I hear a lot of people owed money by Kandatsu. Hard to see them coming back, paying people and then continuing at this stage. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 If you could get hold of them, it might be interesting to hear what they have to say about the experience of try to revitalise a Japanese ski resort. Quite a big one at that. Personally, I suspect there is little or no money in running lifts in Japan at current prices. You have to provide other services with better margins, accommodation I guess, to make money. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 Interesting comment that Mr Wiggles, I was only at the weekend speaking to someone at the weekend about Naeba. He said that Prince have been trying to offload the resort, ie Naeba skijo + hotel. Apparently they have had people interested in buying just the skijo but not the package that includes the hotel. It's the skijo that makes the money, with the hotel losing a ton. Don't know how correct that is though I have no reason not to believe what he was saying, after all he used to work there and has friends who still do. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 The size of the Prince there would bleed anyone dry. That is too huge for non-conglomorate types. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted September 7, 2009 Share Posted September 7, 2009 Indeed - have never stayed there, and have never wanted to. it just seems too big and unfriendly, when you can stay in the town and meet some lovely people in the family run hotels. Plus much more variety in the skijos too. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Yes I agree. Naeba Prince is on a scale of it's own! I just thought I'd add what I heard. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 well it could well be time to get rid of those unecessary annex buildings and consolidate operations back into the heart of the hotel. Keep the major lifts and ditch the rest. Maybe they'll survive for another season or so. Japan has lost a decade, and it'll lose another one. Hoping for turnaround just isn't on. Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 The proud Hanazono owner, Richard Li sems to have iced all plans for his 5 star resort there. Focusing instead on raising half a billion US to buy AIG. *asset management part of AIG with a portfolio of 90 billion. Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 I think they have been doing that thursday. Some lifts have been dropping idle for a while now. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Naeba's still over a million visitors though, isn't it? Even at 50% of the peak, that skijo is going to be making decent wedge! I dunno the hotel myself but my missus went in once for work and said it was massive and very tired looking. It sounds like its far too big to get a decent occupancy and the taxes on something that size are going to be huge. The branded big city hotels have upped the ante for high-end accom in Japan in the past ten-fifteen years, so the refit that would be necessary to impress guests would cost a fortune. The name "Prince" even is worth next-to-nothing now. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Tired looking is a good way to describe it. Tired looking, impersonal, from a different era..... Link to post Share on other sites
SKI 15 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Originally Posted By: big-will from a different era..... That sums it up well. It really is one of those places that for the most part looks stuck in a different time. I sure wouldn't choose to stay there. Link to post Share on other sites
Go Native 70 Posted September 8, 2009 Share Posted September 8, 2009 Most of the hotels I've seen at resorts, even in their heyday, were and remain just ugly edifices to poor taste with a total disregard for asthetics and the natural environment. Pretty much sums up most of what was built in post war Japan. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 I agree there GN. The most ugliest patch of concreting job in a nation wide scale. Link to post Share on other sites
best skier in hakuba 5 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Did that place ever really fill up? Just goes to show what an extreme transformation the skijo scene has seen in 20 years. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Naeba ? sure 30 years ago. There were no were else, and that was the accommodation for competitors, officials and spectators for the world cup. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 The world cup lasted a full season? Would it be full in a normal period of a normal season I reckon is what best skier was asking. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 sorry, I put two things in one sentence. It's 2:40 am in munich and I'm a bit muddled, off to bed. OK . They build a big hotel, ski-in-out situation, what they thought as an international ski resort good enough to get the world cup happening in Japan. It was choco-block full during japanese winter holidays 24 Dec to 8 Jan, bloody expensive then, but appealed to the yuppie crowd. Reminder- it was cool to be yuppie, wearing Fila tennis warm-ups driving Audi, VW going to Naeba . Big Disco scene , too. Link to post Share on other sites
lin 0 Posted September 9, 2009 Share Posted September 9, 2009 Ah the discos I remember them! Do they still have the Yumin concerts every winter? I went once a while back and even then it seemed a little out of date somehow. Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Any news on Kandatsu yet? Also heard this week that the resort that is next to Kijimadaira, Makinoiri - the one on the same mountain as Kijimadaira and linked to it, it all looks like it is the same resort to people who don't know - will not be opening this season. Basically the right hand half of this image Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Originally Posted By: lin Do they still have the Yumin concerts every winter? I believe they do Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 Not heard anything on Kandatsu other than they owe a lot of people a lot of money. Not looking good by all accounts, unless someone comes in and takes it over. Link to post Share on other sites
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