JAPAN: Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose - 154 Guestrooms Opens At Chitose Airport

Best Western Hotels & Resorts has opened a brand new upper-midscale hotel at New Chitose Airport, the gateway to the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose, which is situated just 3.2 km from the airport terminal, welcomed its first guests on June 1, 2018.

This brand new hotel offers guests a convenient base from which to explore Hokkaido’s top business and tourism destinations, including the vibrant city of Sapporo and the upmarket ski resort of Niseko.

It also becomes one of the closest internationally-branded hotels to New Chitose, Japan’s fifth busiest airport.

This major air gateway, which handles more than 20 million passengers per year, now offers direct connections to and from major cities all across Asia and beyond, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur.

Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose features 154 guestrooms, including a selection of Japanese-style family rooms for up to four guests.

All rooms come equipped with facilities including flat-screen TVs and complimentary Wi-Fi. The hotel also features a 24-hour front desk, daily housekeeping and laundry, supported by Best Western’s world-famous service standards.

We are delighted to welcome guests to Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose, as we continue to expand our Japanese portfolio and provide world-class accommodation to guests across the country, said Olivier Berrivin, Best Western’s Managing Director of International Operations - Asia.

With its dramatic landscapes, stunning scenery and fresh mountain air, Hokkaido is a fantastic destination for travelers seeking a break from the city.

Perfectly positioned on the doorstep of New Chitose Airport, this brand new hotel is suited to business and leisure travelers, including families.

It will be ideal for guests who want to break up their journey to and from Hokkaido, or those seeking a convenient base for their activities on the island.

I am confident that Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose will prove extremely popular with all our guests,Olivier added.

Hokkaido hosts a year-round calendar of events, including the famous Sapporo Snow Festival which attracts more than two million people each year.

The nearby Niseko area is quickly developing a global reputation for its world-class winter sports, hot spring resorts, golf courses and other outdoor activities.

The opening of Best Western Plus Hotel Fino Chitose forms part of a focused expansion strategy for Best Western in Japan.

Last year, the company launched exciting new hotels in Tokyo, Osaka and Yamagata Airport, and The Hotel Nagasaki became Japan’s – and Asia’s – first BW Premier Collection® by Best Western hotel.

It also recently opened the 60-room Best Western Sapporo Odori-Koen in downtown Sapporo, just 50km away from the new hotel.

This expansion comes as Japan prepares to host a series of major international sporting events, including the 2020 Olympic Games and the 2019 Rugby World Cup, which will include matches staged in Sapporo.

In total, Best Western now operates a nationwide portfolio of 16 hotels all across Japan, from Hokkaido in the North to Okinawa in the South, making it one of the country’s largest international hotel operators.


Tourism Observer

Japanese On Chinese Tourists

After an airport brawl involving dozens of Chinese tourists, some Japanese have seen an opportunity to teach their neighbours lessons in etiquette – advising them against stealing cutlery and flatulence in public.

Days after brawls involving up to 100 Chinese tourists broke out at an airport in Hokkaido, Japanese outrage is dissipating – and turning into condescension.

The fighting that broke out between the passengers and Japanese police and airline staff following flight delays on December 23 – footage of which was broadcast on television – had initially incensed the Japanese public, many of whom responded on social media with racist insults (some of the more printable comments branded Chinese tourists as “barbarians”, “criminals” and “livestock”).

But, after initial outbursts, many Japanese have headed for the moral high ground, seeing an opportunity to school their sometimes wayward neighbours in that noted Japanese trait: good manners.

“Here in Hokkaido there are an increasing number of Chinese tourists and it is true that you often hear complaints that they do not have good manners, especially people from rural China,” said Makoto Watanabe, a lecturer in communications and media at Hokkaido Bunkyo University. “Many people feel they do not respect local rules and customs and the footage of the incidents at the airport was quite shocking,” he said. “But Chinese tourists have been coming here in large numbers for more than a decade now and they are part of the landscape, they are important to the local economy and, when you talk to people here, they often say that their manners have actually improved in that time,” he said.

“The feeling is that people who have travelled to Japan previously have learned about our manners and customs and they are changing their behaviour to fit in with that,” he said. “And it is possible that they are taking that back to China with them as well, sort of like a Japanese cultural export.”

Such damning with faint praise indicates the clash of cultures is not ending anytime soon. Tourism officials in Hokkaido had to revise a booklet issued in 2015 calling on visitors to mind their manners after being accused of picking on Chinese tourists. The illustrated pamphlet was originally released by the Hokkaido Tourism Authority in response to requests from local hotel operators who complained Chinese guests were inconveniencing others by making too much noise and leaving their rooms dirty.

In response, the tourism authority drew up another booklet, in Chinese and English, that cautioned visitors against stealing cutlery from restaurants, being late for appointments and breaking wind or belching in public. Tourists were told to flush used toilet paper rather than place it in the rubbish bin and not to open the packaging of items on store shelves before buying.

“Japanese etiquette is based on avoiding causing discomfort or nuisance to others,” the guide pointed out.

After a Chinese resident protested, the tourism authority quickly backed down and subtly revised the booklet’s wording.

Japanese often point to problems on the South Korean island of Jeju as a warning of what could happen in Japan if visa requirements are relaxed further for Chinese tourists. In October, South Korean prosecutors indicted seven Chinese tourists on charges of assaulting a restaurant owner, causing a brain hemorrhage. The woman, 53, had asked the tourists to leave after they brought their own alcohol into her restaurant.The incident came a week after a Chinese tourist entered a church and stabbed a local woman to death. His defence? The woman had reminded him of his former wife.

Another concern is that Chinese may join tour groups to get into the country before slipping away to work illegally. At least 20 Chinese citizens who arrived in Japan on cruise ships in the 10 months to May disappeared and are yet to be found.

Meanwhile, efforts to bring occasionally wayward Chinese visitors into line with the finer points of Japanese etiquette look set to increase in importance. With the emergence of a moneyed middle class in China keen to experience other cultures, the number of Chinese arrivals in Japan has soared. In 2015, 4.99 million arrived, the largest single national group and more than double the previous year.

JAPAN: Japan Tops List Of Places For Avoiding Christmas This Year

FOR those who don't celebrate Christmas, be it for religious, personal or ideological reasons, and are looking to escape the frenzy of the holiday madness, consider countries like Japan, Thailand and Turkey.

Or, take the predictable route and book a definitively Christmas-free vacation by visiting Arabic and predominantly Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran, treasure troves of Persian history and the cradle of ancient civilisation.

Those are among the recommendations from online booking site Skyscanner, which has compiled a list of the top 10 places to avoid Christmas.

Topping the list is Japan, where Christmas is not a public holiday, and locals go about their business as usual on December 25. Though Tokyo may have its share of robot Santas, Kyoto and Nara – centers of traditional Japanese culture – remain for the most part Rudolph and Frosty-free, while Hokkaido offers snow bunnies some of the best powder in the world.

Also on the list is Iran, which was likewise named Rough Guides' top country to visit in 2015 for offering a fascinating lesson in ancient Persian history, bazaars, desertscapes, snow-capped mountains and "hauntingly beautiful mosques."

Here is Skyscanner's list of top 10 places for avoiding Christmas this year:

1. Japan
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Algeria
4. Iran
5. Thailand
6. Nepal
7. Turkey
8. North Korea
9. China
10. Bahamas

However, you will have to include:

1. Yemen
2. Iraq
3. Syria

That is for reasons you know, Islamic States Army.