Hotel competition in Anyer to get fiercer

Hotel competition in Anyer to get fiercer

ANYER, West Java (JP): The hotel industry around the Sunda
Strait will get fiercer in the near future as several star-rated
resorts and hotels are now under construction, an executive says.

"At least two resort projects currently being developed in the
Anyer-Carita beach area will start operating within the next few
years and create fiercer competition," the general manager of
Carita Beach Resort, Rudolf G. Schouten, told The Jakarta Post
over the weekend.

He said some of the hotels in this potential international
tourist area are managed by domestic and international hotel
management chains which are too reluctant to create price wars.

More international hotel chains have actually entered the
hotel industry in Indonesia by signing deals with domestic
investors to operate new star-rated hotels throughout the
country, which will then sharpen competition in the industry.

Along the Anyer-Carita beach, the American Choice Hotel
International has operated Mambruk Quality Resort, a four-star
hotel resort, while the Jakarta-based PT Pudjiadi Prestige Ltd.
is constructing Marbella Residencia, a condominium and star-rated
hotel complex.

Other planned resorts in the area, which currently has around
20 hotels, include Rakata Beach Resort and the Krakatau Beach
Hotel, which will be reconstructed.

Schouten said that his hotel, located on a 10-hectare plot,
operates 102 rooms and 48 executive "lanais" which are in the
shape of elevated houses with thatched roofs of old Banten
architecture. Nearby Banten is at the western tip of Java and is
one of the country's areas well-known for historical traditions
and culture.

He said that since its opening last year, the hotel's
occupancy rates have reached 45 percent, "which is expected to
increase to 65 percent within the next three years."

A resort hotel usually concentrates on weekend or long-stay
guests and convention, with an occupancy rate lower than hotels
in big cities.

According to Schouten, out of his hotel's guests, 80 percent
come from Jakarta, 15 percent from overseas countries, mainly the
Netherlands, Germany and Australia, and five percent from
Bandung, West Java.

The hotel, constructed with an investment of Rp 40 billion
(US$18.52 million) is owned by the Foundation of Pension Fund of
the state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia. (als/icn)