SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Jinya, where guests clearly sense Japan’s history and traditions, has a Japanese garden covering some 33,000 m2,offering abundant natural surroundings that change with each season.

DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATIONPROPELS TOURISM TOWARD THE FUTURE
Opportunity in the face of adversity: a venerable inn that revived its fortunes
through digital transformation pushes Japan’s tourism business into the future.

and streamlined troublesome
As the world reels from theoperations. The greatest benefit ofCOVID-19 pandemic, Japan is
all of that, according to Miyazaki,
building a new post-coronavirus
has been that staff members now
society by implementing boldhave time to do more, allowing
regulatory reforms, especiallythem to check all sorts ofthe promotion of digital
information and act on their own
transformation. In December
initiative to provide guests with2020, Prime Minister SUGA
even more attention. Thus, theYoshihide announced that the The Jinya’s in-house system is built on the inn’sJapanese government would create hospitality management expertise. As other inns digital transformation has raised
Japan adopt this system and offer their
the level of service, leading toa digital agency in September acrossfeedback, it has been further evolving.
more repeat guests for the inn,
2021, to serve as the control towerof digital transformation in the public and private while also considerably increasing both sales andsectors. In that way, the Suga Cabinet is accelerating profits. Miyazaki says that building such trust has
its efforts towards digital transformation, which has kept Jinya an inn at which customers feel safe staying,
been a key policy since the prime minister assumed even during the pandemic.
Jinya is also popularizing the system among similar
office in September 2020.
Jinya, a hot-spring inn that has been in business enterprises, with nearly 400 establishments acrossfor over a century, is one of the forerunners of Japan having since adopted it for their own business.
Japan’s digitalization. It is located an hour away Furthermore, Jinya has built a cooperative networkfrom Tokyo in a quiet residential area of central of inn operators and has also launched a project
Kanagawa Prefecture. While Japan’s traditional in which inns can exchange resources such as foodtourism industry—best exemplified by hot-spring ingredients, equipment, and labor on a website. Thoseinns—earned its popularity by offering a high quality are all examples of how the company has workedof service, it is heavily reliant upon human resources, to create a new tourism industry within a digitalmaking the business often more challenging to society. Miyazaki says, “All our staff want to provide
manage. This was also true of Jinya—which at omotenashi (good hospitality). If we can makeone time was 1 billion yen in debt—but digital good use of digital technology to provide a service
transformation turned its business around. Looking that is enjoyable and of high quality, our guests
back, Jinya Representative Director and President will certainly visit us constantly.” Benefiting fromMIYAZAKI Tomoko, who has been operating the its early digitalization efforts, Jinya’s management
inn with her husband for 11 years, says, “When we has been solid enough to ride out the pandemic
took over the inn, everything was managed in the while spearheading Japan’s tourism industry. The
old way: on paper. In order for the inn to survive, we enthusiasm of the venerable inn has created a wave ofneeded to be resolute and switch everything over to digital transformation throughout the country.
digital technology.”
Jinya decided to make use of cloud services, which MIYAZAKI Tomoko, who used to be an office worker, has made abundant use of thatexperience to manage Jinya. In the photo, she sits in the VIP room that was made toat the time had only recently become available, to accommodate Emperor Meiji (the 122nd Emperor of Japan, who reigned from 1867 to 1912).
manually build its own core systems. In addition tocentralizing the management of bookings and guest
information, the change allowed the staff from all theinn’s departments, including those for cleaning andfood-preparation, to share information instantly.
Moreover, integrating all business administration,such as accounting procedures and staff
attendance management, into one system, sped up,