South Korea’s Hotel Lotte Co. will open Lotte Arai Resort located in the Niigita prefecture, Japan in December 2017 after completing renovation, its first resort in Japan and fourth one following Lotte Art Villas in Jeju Island, Lotte Buyeo Resort in South Chungcheong Province and Lotte Resort Sokcho in Gangwon Province scheduled to open in July, according to the company on Thursday.

Lotte Arai Resort, formally known as Arai Mountain Resort and Spa, closed its operation in 2006 but is scheduled to fully reopen in December 2017. The resort was founded in 1993 by Hideo Morita, the eldest son of Sony co-founder Akio Morita, and acquired by Hotel Lotte in June 2015 for 1.8 billion yen ($16 million).

The ski resort sitting on an area of 2.09 million square meters has four lodging facilities with 257 rooms, four lifts, one gondola and 11 slopes. It also has hot springs and a swimming pool. It provides excellent snow quality for skiers as the weather makes so-called power snow with low moisture content and a much longer skiing season from the end of December to May. It is just two hours away from Tokyo by the Hokuriku Shinkansen, a high-speed railway line, and two hours away from Niigata Airport by car.

“Lotte Aria Resort will be able to attract not only Japanese customers but also foreign visitors with its long skiing season and best snow quality,” said Kim Jung-hwan, chief executive officer of Hotel Lotte.

By Park Eun-jin

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