Create more tourist attractions: Joop

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)