Free Shuttle Bus Hopes to Bring Tourists To City near Hakuba Ski Resort; Service connecting Hakuba to Nearby Omachi City To Start In December

By Masao Yamaguchi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

2:00 JST, December 19, 2024

Free shuttle bus services connecting the popular ski resort village of Hakuba and the neighboring city of Omachi, both in Nagano Prefecture, will start operations in December, as a measure to address overtourism by foreign tourists visiting the village’s ski slopes.

The shuttle buses aim to encourage tourists visiting Hakuba in winter to come to the neighboring Omachi, where they can enjoy relaxing dinners and accommodations.

The shuttle buses will be operated by a council comprised of officials from the Omachi municipal government and the local ski industry. The budget for the project is about 10 million yen, and the operators will make use of a central government subsidy program for projects to promote sustainable tourism by preventing and reducing overtourism. The name of the service is “Gurutto Bus” (excursion bus). They will operate two types of shuttle bus: One is the Accommodation Shuttle Bus and the other is the Dinner Shuttle Bus.

The Accommodation Shuttle Bus will be a large 45-seater bus and will operate from Dec. 21 to Feb. 24. The service it offers will be based on the concept of “having fun in Hakuba, then staying in nearby Omachi.”

The Accommodation Shuttle Bus will leave from ANA Holiday Inn Resort Shinano-Omachi Kuroyon and the Omachi Onsenkyo hot spring district in the morning and travel to ski slopes in Hakuba and return to Omachi in the evening. About 2,000 people are expected to use the service during the season. People who have booked accommodations in the city can use the shuttle bus; they will not be required to make reservations for it.

The Dinner Shuttle Bus will be based on the concept of “enjoying tourism in Hakuba and food in Omachi.” A medium-sized bus which can seat 27 passengers will be operated on weekdays from Jan. 6 to Feb. 21. It will leave from Hakuba Tokyu Hotel and Happo Bus Terminal in the evening and travel to the Omachi Onsenkyo hot spring district and Shinano Omachi Station. Passengers will have dinner in Omachi and return to Hakuba by 10 p.m. About 500 people are expected to use the shuttle bus. Passengers with prior reservations will be given priority, but people without reservations will be able to board the bus if there are seats available.

A one-way trip will take about 90 minutes on the Accommodation Shuttle Bus and about 80 minutes on the Dinner Shuttle Bus.

Nearly 1.13 million tourists visited Hakuba from November 2023 to February this year, the highest number for any such period in the past two decades. The number of ski resort visitors over the same period increased to approximately 810,000, up 1.2 times from the same period of the previous year, and nearly 50% of those visitors were foreigners.

Hotels and restaurants in Hakuba are being packed to capacity due to the surge in the number of foreigners visiting ski slopes there. Even more tourists are expected to visit the village this winter than last winter. An official from the local ski industry said, “I am worried that tourists will start opting for other ski resorts because all the accommodations in Hakuba are full.”

“We would like foreigners visiting Hakuba to have accommodation and dinner options in Omachi so that we can add new attractions to Hakuba,” an official at the Omachi municipal government’s tourism and culture department said.

Bus connecting Matsumoto and Hakuba

The Matsumoto municipal government operated a paid bus connecting Hakuba with restaurants and sightseeing spots in Matsumoto on a trial basis from Jan. 17 to Feb. 14 of this year, aiming to attract foreign tourists visiting Hakuba to their city as well.

During the operation period, 235 passengers used the bus. While the average number of passengers per bus was small at 4.2, the number of tourists from Asia saw high growth, and the city expects the number of tourists to further grow this winter. For that reason, they plan to operate the bus while improving its service.

Attention will be paidto whether Omachi will be able to take advantage of its privileged nearby position to compete with Matsumoto, despite that city being overwhelmingly famous.