Lotte Hotel & Resorts, the hotel arm of South Korean conglomerate Lotte Group, said on Monday that it opened its first ski resort in Myoko, a city in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture, comprising of more than 250 guest rooms and other facilities including 11 ski runs and a spa.

The opening of Lotte Arai Resort, formerly known as Arai Mountain Resort and Spa, comes more than two years after Lotte Group signed an agreement to take over the resort facilities in June, 2015, and underwent large-scale remodeling to create a complex ski resort with high-end facility. It is the first time that a large Korean hotel brand opened a resort in Japan.

Lotte Arai Resort - a 2.09 million square meter mountain resort - is comprised of four resort complexes with 257 guest rooms, a ski facility with four lifts, one gondola, and 11 ski runs, a hot spring bath, swimming pool, and a convention hall.

Japan’s Okenashiyama is a mountain area in Japan known for heavy snow. Lotte Arai Resort created 11 ski runs on the mountain with maximum skiable area of 15.7 million square meters, longest run of 5.2 kilometers, and elevation of 951 meters, allowing skiers of beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels to enjoy the winter sport.

Inside the resort, Lotte Hotel opened a Japanese restaurant that offers authentic taste of traditional food from Niigata Prefecture, and a hot spring from underground water from a depth of 1,750 meters.

Former Arai Resort, meanwhile, was founded by Hideo Morita, the eldest son of Sony founder, in 1993. The resort is well-known for not only for leisure facilities but also as a venue for ski rotation games and downhill snowboarding and jumping. The resort is located within two hours from Tokyo via Hokuriku Shinkansen and a two hour drive from Niigata airport.

By Lee Han-na and Lee Eun-joo

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