ALTHOUGH KNOWN FOR ITS WINTER SPORTS, NISEKO RETAINS ITS VISUAL SPLENDOUR YEAR-ROUND

A Resort For All Seasons

Greater Niseko is still very much a winter-centric resort destination. In other words, various factions of society must expend more efforts to drive and grow its summer business to a more sustainable model.

For some companies, like Niseko Portfolio and Explore Travel Group, summer business is still heavily reliant on domestic online travel agencies or OTAs.

“Summer is still a very small part of the overall revenue and visitation in much of the Niseko region,” says Greg Hough, the group’s managing director. “The challenge is that the winter is largely international and summer is largely domestic, and the requirements are very different. The summer markets are short stays, are more price-sensitive, and do not require much service, so we need to scale the business based on seasons.”

Summertime events and attractions have potential to make Niseko as appealing when green as it is when white. In 2023, the Niko Niko Summer Festival returned to Niseko after a three-year hiatus while the Niseko Hirafu Green Park brought the acclaimed Cinema Caravan to the highlands. In summer 2022, one of the longest zipline courses in the world opened at the Hanazono Zip World.

“Believe that in the longer term, tourism has momentum, and we will see the Niseko market mature into a year-round destination,” says Bill Barnett, founder and managing director of C9 Hotelworks.