Westin plans to open more hotels here<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Westin Hotels and Resorts, a U.S. hotel
\nmanagement firm based in Seattle, plans a major expansion in
\nIndonesia, its Surabaya hotel's general manager said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Rolf Salomon, said the firm was building a second hotel in
\nJakarta. He said it was negotiating with its prospective
\npartners to run two more hotels in two Indonesian cities.<\/p>\n
\"We will announce the locations and our partners in the two
\nhotels before the end of this year,\" he told The Jakarta Post
\nhere Thursday.<\/p>\n
Westin, founded in 1930, runs 104 hotels and resorts in 23
\nnations, with additional projects under construction in Kuala
\nLumpur, Melbourne and Manila.<\/p>\n
Salomon refused to give further information about the planned
\nhotels in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Hotel industry sources believe that Bandung in West Java,
\nYogyakarta and Bali would be attractive to Westin and other
\ninternational hotel chains catering to business clientele.<\/p>\n
Westin runs the 418-room Westin Surabaya which opened in June
\n1996. The five-star hotel owned by PT Ramasari Surya Persada
\njoins Surabaya's other luxury hotels, the Hyatt, Shangri-la,
\nSheraton and Mandarin.<\/p>\n
Westin expects its second hotel, a 39-story property in
\nJakarta, to open in 1999. Westin Jakarta, is on Jl. Thamrin,
\nCentral Jakarta, the former Hotel Kartika Plaza site.<\/p>\n
The 500-room Westin Jakarta is owned by PT Wisma Kartika, a
\njoint venture between the Federation Cooperative of the Armed
\nForces and PT Luminary Prima.<\/p>\n
Director of sales and marketing for Westin Surabaya, Jim
\nBoyles, said Indonesia was still attractive to hotel operators
\nbecause of the country's tremendous economic growth.<\/p>\n
\"Indonesia is one of the fastest growing nations in Asia. The
\ncountry has great potential compared to its neighbors,\" he said,
\nadding that Indonesia still needed additional hotels.<\/p>\n
Boyles and Salomon were here to promote Westin Surabaya's
\nincentive program, called Westin's Executive Secretaries Team
\n(WEST). The program offers benefits to guests and those who
\nencouraged them to stay at the hotel.<\/p>\n
Boyles said WEST was to attract more guests given the stiff
\nstar-rated hotel competition in Surabaya.<\/p>\n
There are five five-star hotels in Surabaya, the country's
\nsecond biggest city. It is better known as a business center
\nthan a tourist destination.<\/p>\n
Surabaya also has at least five four-star hotels. Most of
\nstar-rated hotels in Surabaya are run by overseas hotel chain
\nfirms. The excessive number of star-rated hotels in Surabaya had
\nsparked a rates war between the five five-star hotels.<\/p>\n
But Boyles said the war was over. He said it began because
\nthere was small demand for rooms and a lot of hotel development.<\/p>\n
\"The occupancy rate of five star-hotels in Surabaya is
\nestimated to be 45 percent on average for the whole of 1997,
\nabout similar with last year's figure,\" he said. He said room
\nrates ranged between US$78 and $80 a night on average.<\/p>\n
Surabaya's five-star hotel owners had agreed to end the war
\nand planned to develop, hand-in-hand, a convention center to
\npromote Surabaya as a convention city, he said. (icn)<\/p>",
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