SKI RESORT A LABOUR OF LOVE

Thoughtful features and local touches feature in Singaporean Simon Cheong's award-winning Setsu Niseko in Hokkaido

- Sarah Stanley

It was a knee injury sustained while on Niseko's renowned ski slopes in 2013 that sparked the idea for Mr Simon Cheong's award-winning Setsu Niseko resort.

"I didn't know how to manage (the snow quality), but I went in to ski and it was too soft for me. I somehow flipped and twisted my knee," says Mr Cheong, 68, founder and chairman of luxury property developer SC Global Developments. He had been skiing since his university days in Seattle in the United States in the 1980s, but stopped after the incident.

There was a silver lining. "After my injury, while my family was skiing in Niseko for five to six hours, I had nothing much to do, so I'd just walk around town. And I realised - because I'm in the luxury property business - that perhaps there was an opportunity there," he says.

In the winter months from December to March, Hokkaido - Japan's northernmost island - is covered in a thick fluffy blanket of white.

Surrounded by mountainous terrain and with low air moisture, the destination enjoys light and powdery snow that attracts people from all over the world, especially ski enthusiasts. Among them are Mr Cheong and his family of five, who first visited Niseko in 2008.

"There's regular snow - which is typical of (mountain towns) like the US' Aspen or Canada's Whistler - and then there's super dry powder snow in Niseko. That's the skier's dream," he says.

Mr Cheong founded SC Global Developments in 1996. Today, the millionaire businessman leads a company of more than 80 employees and has diversified his company portfolio into a property management arm, Seven Palms Resorts Management, alongside running numerous real estate projects in Singapore and abroad.

"When we first visited Niseko, I remember it being very quiet and there wasn't much happening there. I thought, 'Wow, this place is like Whistler in the making," he says.