A NEW hotel owned by Millennium & Copthorne (M&C) Hotels in Tokyo has won a silver award for interior design from United States-based International Design Awards.
The firm said it is among the first Singapore-controlled hotel companies to win the award for an overseas outlet.
The design of the 329-room Millennium Mitsui Garden Hotel in the Ginza district is based on "Asian minimalism". Millennium & Copthorne Hotels chairman Kwek Leng Beng worked closely on the concept with designers. The plans were then implemented by CL3 Architects from Hong Kong.
It opened last December and has received about 50,000 guests, with an occupancy rate of over 80 per cent, said general manager Ayako Iwasaki.
The hotel, which is operated by Japanese real estate firm Mitsui Fudosan, charges between US$250 (S$329) and US$600 a night.
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, which bought the land for 9.5 billion yen (S$105.3 million) in 2011, said in a statement yesterday that it had been trying to establish itself in the Japanese capital since the mid-1990s but had found it "nearly impossible" to secure a presence in the Ginza area.
But that has changed with the hotel. Mr Kwek called the hotel's performance "beyond expectations", noting that "a new hotel usually takes up to two years to have stable earnings and service performance".
Ms Iwasaki, who is the first female general manager of a hotel operated by Mitsui Fudosan, told The Straits Times that she expects the Japanese hospitality industry to expand, given the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as efforts by the Japanese government and local municipalities to attract foreign tourists.
Mr Gerry de Silva, head of corporate affairs at the Hong Leong Group, said the depreciation of the yen, as well as measures by the local government to make entry into Japan easier, has created a "buoyant market".
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels is a member of the Hong Leong Group.
This article was first published on Apr 30, 2015.
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