Create more tourist attractions: Joop
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave has called on tourism-oriented investors to focus on the establishment of new tourist attractions, saying they are currently concentrating too heavily on the hotel business.
"Establishing new tourist attractions is important, because foreign visitors do not come to Indonesia for the hotels but for tourist destinations and attractions," Joop said at his office after presenting awards to the winners of a student tourism photography contest.
He said Indonesia's tourist industry would be much more developed if businessmen prepared more tourist attractions in various locations.
He said his office and the ministry of education and culture would pioneer some projects, including the refurbishment of two palaces in Surakarta, Central Java.
In cooperation with several private firms, the state-owned temple management company PT Taman Wisata Candi Borobudur, Prambanan dan Ratu Boko will also soon start a multi-media project near Borobudur temple in Central Java, he said.
"The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization gave its support to the idea after Indonesia explained the plan, which will be carried out by Son et Lumiere of France," he said, adding words of praise for the private firms which will participate in the project.
Earlier, the US$15 million project, which involves leading entrepreneurs Mooryati Sudibyo, Murdaya and Jan Darmadi, was the subject of strong objections from an international heritage committee.
According to Joop, a private firm in East Java is planning the development of a tourist attraction to be called "Window on the World" in Prigen, East Java. The attraction consist of models of more than 100 internationally-famous buildings, 21 of which will be actual size, on a 100-hectare plot which will include a hotel, a golf course and other facilities.
Joop said that the $125 million project will be prepared by Hari Susilo, a businessmen who runs the Finna crisp manufacturer in East Java.
Hilton
Meanwhile, businessman Ponco Sutowo said yesterday that his company, PT Indobuilco, which owns the Jakarta Hilton International hotel, recently signed a deal with Hilton International to set up a subsidiary in Indonesia.
"The new company will be owned equally by Indobuilco and Hilton International. We are now waiting for a license from the Investment Coordinating Board," Ponco told reporters after attending a seminar here yesterday.
Joop said recently that the government would require foreign hotel management firms to establish subsidiaries in Indonesia if they wanted to operate hotels here.
More than 40 international hotel management chains currently operate in Indonesia.
Problems at hotels, such as strikes and taxation disputes, cannot be solved immediately in cases where the management firm has no base in Indonesia. Most of the problems are then resolved by the companies which own the hotels.
Ponco, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association, said that his proposed joint-venture company will manage the three existing Hilton hotels in Indonesia -- the Jakarta Hilton International, Patra Surabaya Hilton in Surabaya, East Java, and the Bali Hilton International in Nusa Dua, Bali. (icn)