Accor foresees recovery for RI's hotels

Accor foresees recovery for RI's hotels

JAKARTA (JP): The country's major hotels are heading for a
full recovery thanks to a surge in business activities in the
country, a major international hotel group said.

A product manager for the Indonesian operation of the Accor
Asia Pacific Group, Fabrice Burtin, said on Thursday that most
star-rated hotels showed significant growth in their occupancy
rates in recent months.

He was optimistic that occupancy rates of major hotels in big
cities such as Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya and Batam would be able
to return to precrisis levels above 70 percent within the next 10
months.

Accor operates 27 hotels and apartments under the name of
Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bogor,
Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Medan, Batam, Bali and several other
locations.

"All our hotels have occupancy rates of more than 50 percent,
and they are up to 90 percent in Jakarta due to domestic
business, which is returning quickly," Burtin said during the
launching of a partnership with Air France to reward frequent
flyers with Accor benefits.

He said the influx of domestic business travelers was a
general trend which would positively affect Indonesia's hotel
industry.

Accor's average occupancy rate is predicted to be from 50
percent to 55 percent in 2000, up from 40 percent to 45 percent
in 1999, he said. However, he added that the figures were only
tentative predictions due to Accor's different hotel market
segments.

"The next challenge would be to bring back inbound commuters
from regions like Asia and Australia," Burtin said.

He said through the partnership with Air France, Accor hoped
to bring back inbound business travelers.

Under Air France's frequence plus frequent flyer program,
members can redeem their accrued frequent flyer points with a
stay at Accor's hotels throughout Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia
and Brunei.

Burtin said it was important to establish partnerships and new
marketing packages before the hotel business fully returned to
normal.

He believed it would be harder to compete if Accor stepped up
its marketing efforts when the hotel industry had already
recovered.

Meanwhile, Air France regional general manager Frederic Gossot
said the airline postponed plans to put on additional flights to
Indonesia due to internal operational difficulties.

During the economic crisis, Air France cut its flights from
six to three in order to maintain a good business level, he said.

"We definitely want to add more flights, but the planes are
currently in use for our Saigon route," he said, referring to
three planes withdrawn from Indonesian services.

Gossot also said Air France would set up electronic ticketing
services for Indonesian customers by the end of this year, which
he described as an inevitable result of coping with the
development of the Internet.(03)