Japanese tourism giant H.I.S. invests in “Hot Air Ballooning” sector in Cappadocia

Cappadocia which is certainly a very popular tourism spot in Turkey has been receiving more and more visitors each and every year. In fact, the number of tourists visiting museums and ruins in Cappadocia, one of the most important centers of nature, history and culture tourism reached 3 million 834 thousand 134 in 2019. Almost 500 thousand of these tourists were from the Far East, which consists of Japan, China and South Korea. Cappadocia, which is often visited by the Japanese Imperial family as well, has recently attracted attention of Japanese investors.

H.I.S Company, one of the biggest tourism companies not only in Japan, but also in Asia was the first company to invest in this area. It was reported that Japanese tourism giant would buy shares in Atmosfer Balonculuk Ticaret Turizm AŞ owned by Turkish Dorak Holding. This way, the Japanese giant will thus have signed its first transportation investment in Turkey.

Established in 1980, H.I.S. Ltd Co. is a travel agency specializing in low cost package tours. It was founded by Hideo Sawada under the name of International Tours Co. 40 years ago and changed its name to H.I.S. The Japanese giant which has 303 branches in Japan, has a global network of 185 branches in 124 cities abroad.

The company, which owns a majority stake in Asia Atlantic Airlines and a minority stake in Skymark Airlines, also owns two hotels in Australia called The Watermark Hotel and Spa on the Gold Coast, Queensland and the Watermark Hotel Brisbane. H.I.S. Co, Ltd also manages a cruise company called Cruise Planet. (dny)