H.I.S. (travel agency)

H.I.S. Co., Ltd.
Native name
株式会社エイチ・アイ・エス
Company typePublic KK
TYO: 9603
IndustryTravel
FoundedDecember 19, 1980; 43 years ago (1980-12-19)
FounderHideo Sawada
HeadquartersKamiyacho Trust Tower 5F 4-1-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, 105-6905, ,
Number of locations
H.I.S. currently has 233 retail outlets in 66 countries, 141 overseas cities
ServicesTravel, Tourism, Transportation
RevenueNet Sales 523 Billion 705 Million Yen (2016)
8 Billion 700 Million Yen [1]
8 Billion 903 Million Yen (2016) [1]
Total assetsTotal Assets 332,385 Million Yen (2016) [1]
Number of employees
14,380 (October 31, 2016) [2]
Websitehttps://www.his.co.jp/english/

H.I.S. Co., Ltd. (株式会社エイチ・アイ・エス, Kabushiki-gaisha Eichi Ai Esu) is a travel agency based on the fifth floor of Trust Tower in Kamiya-cho, Tokyo in Kamiyacho, Minatoku, Tokyo, Japan,[3] specializing in low-cost package tours. The company was founded as International Tours Co., Ltd. in 1980 by Hideo Sawada, born in 1951, and renamed "H.I.S." in 1990.[4][5]

In Japan, H.I.S. has 303 branches throughout the country and a global network of 185 branches in 124 cities abroad.[6] H.I.S. holds a majority stake in Orion Tour, Asia Atlantic Airlines and a minority stake in Skymark Airlines. It owns two hotels in Australia, one called Watermark Hotel and Spa on the Gold Coast, Queensland and the Watermark Hotel Brisbane, and a cruise company called Cruise Planet. In 2021, H.I.S. estimated record loss of ¥53 billion due to pandemic.[7]

Hideo Sawada bought an interest in the Mongolian agricultural Khan Bank and believes Japanese tourism to Mongolia will increase. Sawada Holdings Co., Ltd also owns 40% of the shares of the Russian bank Solid Bank.

The Henn na Hotel owned by H.I.S. Co . in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, has been recognized by Guinness World Records as “the first robot-staffed hotel” in the world, according to the chief of the Huis Ten Bosch theme park.[8][9] Henn na Hotel, meaning "strange hotel" in Japanese, opened to the public in July 2015. This high class robot hotel has 144 rooms and 186 robotic employees, some of which are multilingual (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean).[10][11] The aim of Henn na Hotel as proposed by Hideo Sawada is that by "having robots in charge of the reception and placing robots everywhere, we aim to make it the most efficient hotel in the world" by reducing manpower.[11]

  1. ^ a b c "[1]." financial results
  2. ^ "[2]." About H.I.S
  3. ^ "Company Info." H.I.S. Retrieved on March 11, 2010.
  4. ^ "H I S CO LTD (9603:Tokyo Stock Exchange): Stock Quote & Company Profile - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  5. ^ "H.I.S. Co., Ltd. - Nikkei Asian Review". Nikkei Asian Review. Archived from the original on 2018-03-16. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  6. ^ "Company Info." H.I.S. Retrieved on August 17, 2012.
  7. ^ "HIS Corporation. Retrieved on 7 October 2023". 30 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Japan's robot hotel: a dinosaur at reception, a machine for room service". The Guardian. Associated Press. 2015-07-16. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  9. ^ "Robot-run Henn na Hotel in Nagasaki enters Guinness book". The Japan Times Online. 2016-11-18. ISSN 0447-5763. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2017-11-16.
  10. ^ "Robot-run Henn na Hotel in Nagasaki enters Guinness book". The Japan Times Online. 2016-11-18. ISSN 0447-5763. Archived from the original on 2017-10-02. Retrieved 2017-05-16.
  11. ^ a b Kikuchi, Daisuke (2017-03-15). "'Strange' hotel, run by robots, opens near Tokyo; more to come". The Japan Times Online. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved 2017-05-16.