A conversation with Reiko Sakata, general manager of the Imperial Hotel Kyoto

0:12Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. I am Fernando Augusto Pacheco and this week we're heading to Kyoto to speak with Reiko Sakata, general manager of the new Imperial Hotel Kyoto, which opened its doors this spring. Let's hear more about the hotel opening and its brand new spa, and what the new location means to the hotel group.

0:40It's a pleasure to speak here with General Manager Reiko Sakata from the brand new Imperial Hotel in Kyoto. First of all, my first question is, this is a very important launch for the Imperial Group, because I believe it's your fourth property, and it's in such a special city in Japan. So give us a little bit more of the details. When actually the hotel opened its doors? So actually, it's exactly that two months ago, on March 5th, actually this year, we opened our doors. What does it mean for the brand Imperial to open in Kyoto? You know, it's such a special city for Japan and beloved by many tourists as well.

1:25So it is a very important, it's a big deal for the brand. First of all, we have a long-standing 135 years of history of the Imperial Hotel brand. So about 15 years ago, Imperial Hotel brand decided to look for the opportunity to build a new hotel or opened a new hotel in Kyoto, where the city of Kyoto is such an iconic place, iconic city within Japan. It's a cultural heart, cultural center of Japan, which means that it requires a particularly thoughtful approach to open a hotel here in Kyoto. And we finally done it. Fantastic. And I want to ask you about the location of the hotel, because I believe it's quite a historical area that's been some parts of it have been restored.

2:28So tell us a bit more about this special location. So within the city of Kyoto which have 1 ,000 years history, the Gion is a very special district where all the traditional Japanese culture are gathered in this special area. where the Maiko and Geiko, which is a specific name for geisha, we call them Geiko and Maiko in Kyoto, and they train every day and they live here and they work here. Wow, that's fantastic. And I want to go, let's go through some of the facilities in the hotel. One thing that caught my eye was the wonderful spa area. You know, I was a bit jealous, you know, looking at the beautiful pictures.

3:16So tell us, it feels very calming as well. And again, the location of it, because is it under a cave, right? Or you can explain it better. So first of all, the Gion area, as you can imagine, that is a very, very popular destination for the tourists, which means that there's so many people walking on the street and there's some noises of the people surrounding our building. However, when you go into the building, into the hotel, you have a quiet, calm environment and ambient inside the hotel. So on the basement, the lower level one, we have the spa and pool, swimming pools, where we have the fitness facilities as well.

4:04By the way, Reiko-san really wanted to invite you to come in here. I will. and inside the pool you have surrounded by the japanese domestic stone which offer you the energy of the natural materials so you really feel that the environment the surrounding offers energy when you are in this far area i mean fitness wellness area so she would like to highlight our interior designer the design studio is named new materials research laboratories so their concept of the design is all is new so they are intended to utilize the old material including a very ancient time i mean material from the ancient time including stones and the wood, who are buried in the ground for over a thousand years.

5:10So these natural materials give you energy and the power from the earth and from the nature. Fantastic. And finally, I just want to ask, because I feel that Japan is having a very good moment tourism wise as well in your hotel so far where do you think are your customers coming from is it a selection globally are there very you know a strong japanese market itself maybe from other cities so i would like to know a little bit more about that so our international guests comes from europe north america and south america of course from brazil and throughout asia but what connects them is the sensibility rather than the nationality so they tend to uh culturally engaged travelers interested in design architecture craftsmanship on the food and many are returning visit to japan which allows for a more considered pace of discovery so after two months uh since our old grand opening uh we are seeing the international traveler who are taking a relaxing moment in the hotel even outside of hotel and taking themselves discovered from what the travelers are seeing inside a hotel and in the neighborhood.

6:46So these are the common experience that the travelers are always looking for. Our guests are always looking for.

7:00Thank you, Reiko Sakata, there, General Manager of the Imperial Hotel Kyoto. I'm Fernando Gusto Pacheco, and the show was edited by Jack Jewers. Thank you for listening. Thank you.