I suppose when you work in travel, you shouldn’t be surprised who you run into so when I heard that Hoshino Resorts was having a media lunch in Sydney the week I happened to be in town, I gatecrashed it.

Catching up with Hoshino in Sydney at Sake On The Rocks

I wanted to catch up with Yoshiharu Hoshino, who wants to take his fourth-generation family business global by bringing Japanese ryokan hospitality to the rest of the world �" plus it was an excuse to check out the much-talked-about Sake Restaurant located on The Rocks.

I like Hoshino’s approach to work and life, how he combines the two. When I asked him what he was doing in Sydney, he said, “You know, I am a big skier and I try and ski for 60 days of the year and every year, I spend 30 days in Australia and New Zealand. Summer in Japan is winter here �" it’s perfect.”

His resort has an exchange programme with Cardrona Alpine Resort in Queenstown where the two exchange ski personnel and season pass holders of Hoshino Resorts can ski free in New Zealand and vice versa. Hoshino has similar programmes with leading ski resorts around the world.

The different brands of Hoshino Resorts

While in Sydney, he thought, why not have an event to tell the media about Hoshino Resorts and its unique style of ryokan experiences under three brands, Hoshinoya, Risonare and Kai. “Already many Australians have visited our properties which number some 35 in Japan and it is clear that interest in Japan continues to grow.”

Read the full article here.