domestic tourism

THIS week has seen a rare "Silver Week" holiday period in Japan, where three public holidays fall consecutively at the start of the week, resulting in five days of holidays.

The domestic tourism market is becoming increasingly aware of Niseko and the attractions the area has to offer.

Hotels,

NISEKO Village, operators of hotels, ski, golf and summer activity facilities in the Higashiyama area, have announced plans for a new large scale, very up market resort development on land adjoining their current operations.

In addition to commercial and leisure facilities, they are proposing to build a total of over 1,000 condominium

A huge 58,000-tsubo (19.2 hectares) block of land at Rusutsu has been sold to a ‘major’ company.

Despite Rusutsu - about 45 minutes drive from Niseko - being considered another area that could experience a property boom, the market has never really taken off.

While the mountain is great for skiing there

There are probably lots of very technical ways to measure the maturity of holiday resort areas. But in the case of ski resorts, the simplest - and most accurate - test is to look at how many visitors they attract in the period between winters. Whistler, it is now said, has more visitors in the summer than in the winter.

In Niseko,