Jump to content

Recommended Posts

I thought that Club Med was pretty much run as a "foreigners resort" (for want of a better phrase). Everything is done with the foreign market in mind - waiters, hotel staff, facilities, kids stuff, resort, etc.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 129
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Something which has really taken off in the European ski resorts is mountain biking. You can't do it with the gondolas, but with the chair lifts you can providee uplifts for bikes and create a new season in the summer when otherwise you might be stuggling to tick over. Some resorts like Morzine will give you a free week's lift pass in the summer if you retain the week lift pass you bought in the winter, quite a good marketing ploy.

 

I don't know how busy Arai was in the summer, but it and other resorts in Japan should take note.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear that. When Arai was open, I did not know where it was, and soon relaized it was more far place than Myoko from Tokyo. None of may friends had asked me to go there. It took much traveling time and cost. Then it had been closed before I had a chance to visit. It must be very hard work to get vistors from Tokyo...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Infuriating news indeed. Arai sounded like one of the better resorts.

 

I don't criticise Japan very often, but there are just far too many crappy and mediocre ski resort zombies here diverting valuable skiers from (and making survival all that much more difficult for) the better, more viable resorts. IMO, anomalous snowfalls and energy shocks just laid bare a much more serious problem with Japan's ski industry.

 

I am somewhat sympathetic to the arguments for propping the crappy and mediocre resorts up, but some of those just need to be allowed to die a proper death to avoid a tragedy like this.

Link to post
Share on other sites

distance kept some people at bay. Far from Tokyo and Osaka. Tokyo has Yuzawa and the Neaba areas within just a few hours. Osaka has Gifu, Nagoya has gifu and nagano.

 

the little ones have to shut-down but the resorts location might have been a problem....?

 

Debt free owners might have a better shot at it.

 

Mountain biking is just starting to boom here. The cost of bikes will in the end be a problem. The best bikes are the same price as a bloody used car. You cant really get anything for under 100000 that is any good for Downhill.

 

mountains that run the lifts for hiking should really look at mountain biking. mountains like tsugaike and happo should have biking.their ondies are running anyways for the hikers.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Are there any restrictions on mountain biking at the resorts in summer? Would there be an problem fronting up to the Happo gondola with a bike? Would a bike fit in the gondola?

 

Seems like a good summer marketing idea for places like Happo - "2007 All Nippon Mountain Biking Championships". Hook it up with the IMBA, and things might start happening for the resort. Not that I know much about this stuff, but I'm not sure it would work for Arai though.

 

http://www.imba.com/international/news.html

Link to post
Share on other sites

One potential problem here with downhill mountain biking is that so many resorts have drainage/anti-erosion troughs switching back the entire length of most slopes. Seems like an easily fixed hurdle, though.

 

Lots of resorts are trying summer stuff: golf, paragliding, massive inflatable balls with an inner chamber into which you climb and roll down the ski slope. . . From informal conversations I have had with people involved, none done much good.

 

FT. I don't think Arai is any farther or more inconvenient from Tokyo than Aizu is, but i could be wrong.

 

In Aizu's case, there are 13 ski areas within a 30 minute drive of Aizu Wakamatsu city, most of which subsist on zero-interest loans and local gov't subsidies while eating each other alive. And I don't think Aizu is unique in that respect. IMO, even a debt-free investor is going to be fighting an uphill battle until a much more basic problem is solved. I guess that was my point.

Link to post
Share on other sites

MTB requires strength, power, and speed, ie. Youth, while young people pay thier money for cellphones and fashions. They say no thanks for sweaty activities. But, we see big demand for outdoors sports on job retirement phase of Japan baby boomers (Dankai no Sedai) comming. Their physical strength are weaken, but they afford to pay money for healthy outdoors. Note that they have already been scared of riding MTB.

Link to post
Share on other sites

This was shock news for me also. I was planning on working there next season. Always I was impressed with the facilities and I like the resort also.

 

I hope people can find jobs and also resort can open again.

Link to post
Share on other sites

That really is too bad, Arai was a decent place and I sure wasn't expecting for that place to close done (unlike lots of others). It will be interesting to see what happens to all those facilities.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

×
×
  • Create New...