IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) has announced the signing of its first management contract in Japan with Kajima to open ANA Holiday Inn Resort Karuizawa in 2025.
ANA Holiday Inn Resort Karuizawa will be an all-season resort which is an hour and a half from Tokyo Station at an altitude of 1,300m “in the majestic Asama wilderness”.
The resort will have 100 guest rooms, and two pet-friendly villas, as well as a restaurant, natural hot spring, gym and indoor swimming pool.
The grounds adjacent to the hotel will feature a ski slope for children and adults and an 18-hole golf course.
Currently operating as President Resort Karuizawa, the property will undergo an extensive renovation and reopen as ANA Holiday Inn Resort Karuizawa in the first quarter of 2025.
Holiday Inn Resort Karuizawa will be the tenth hotel in Japan under the Holiday Inn brand family, and the fourth Holiday Inn Resort offering, alongside ANA Holiday Inn Resort Miyazaki, ANA Holiday Inn Resort Shinano Omachi Kuroyon, and ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen.
It is also IHG’s second hotel in Karuizawa, complementing Hotel Indigo Karuizawa, which opened in 2022.
IHG says the agreement is the first step in a mid- to long-term mutual development partnership in Japan between IHG and Kajima, a leading Japanese construction, civil engineering, and real estate development company.
“Karuizawa, long a favourite with political, business and cultural visitors, as well as foreign travellers, is the perfect location to launch this partnership between IHG and Kajima. We look forward to building on this long-standing partnership and developing even more great hotels throughout Japan in the years to come,” said Abhijay Sandilya, managing director of Japan and Micronesia for IHG and CEO of IHG-ANA Hotels Group Japan.
IHG currently has 55 open or pipeline hotels across Japan and is experiencing its biggest period of growth on record in the country.