General election affects hotel accupancy rates

JAKARTA (JP): Next month's general election, for which campaign activities will start tomorrow, has affected hotel occupancy rates in Jakarta, a hotel industry senior executive said yesterday.

"Orders for hotel reservations through the Jakarta branch of Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association have now declined to 40 percent of last year's monthly average of about 3,000 guests," said Kenny Rosanti, a senior staff member of the branch.

The general election will be on May 29. The campaign will be from April 27 to May 23 and the cool-off period from May 24 to May 28.

To guarantee the security of election activities, the government will ban public gatherings beginning a week before the campaign period starts until a week after the election.

Kenny said reservations started dropping earlier this year -- by about 30 percent in the first three months -- because many tourists were worried about the stability ahead of the election.

The media has reported riots and clashes over election issues in several parts of Indonesia, particularly in Central and East Java.

Hotel Indonesia's public relations manager, Henny Puspitasari, predicted the occupancy rate of the 580-room hotel was likely to drop from 80 percent to 50 percent in the coming weeks.

Jakarta Hilton International's Ria Leimena said the occupancy rate of the 1,104-room hotel would fall from 75 percent to 60 percent.

Regent Jakarta Hotel's Hana Hoed said the 369-room hotel's occupancy rate might fall from 75 percent to 65 percent next week and to 60 percent in May.

Kenny, Ria and Hana said the drop in occupancy rates were in line with the absence of conference activities at their five-star hotels.

But they were optimistic occupancy rates would recover by mid- June.

The minister of tourism, post and telecommunications, Joop Ave, said national stability was the most important thing for tourism everywhere.

But he said the riots that recently rocked towns in Central and East Java would not affect Indonesia's tourism.

Analysts said violence might still occur until the general elections next month.

"I think that this also relates with the media reports which exaggerated the riots. I don't blame the media as they have to report what really happens, but it must be balanced," Joop said after speaking at the ASEAN-Indian Ocean rim Business Forum held at the Jakarta Convention Center.

Joop said the 66.8 percent drop in foreign arrivals in February through Entikong, the Indonesia-Malaysia border crossing in West Kalimantan, was meaningless.

"It's just small number of the total tourist arrivals for the whole country."

Foreign tourists to Indonesia rose 3.4 percent to 315,407 in February from the same period last year. (13/icn)