Hotel development projections off target

Hotel development projections off target

JAKARTA (JP): Hotels are being established at a rate far
slower than that outlined in the government's Sixth Five Year
Development Plan (Repelita VI).

The Directorate General of Tourism's recently issued Hotel
Directory shows that only 836 new hotels with 19,414 rooms were
added during the January 1994 to June 1996 period.

Under Repelita VI, the government set a target of 100,000 new
hotel rooms between April 1994 and March 1999.

The total number of hotel rooms in the country as of June this
year stood at 194,551 in 8,674 hotels. Of the hotels, 710 are
star-rated with 67,562 rooms and 7,964 are non-star-rated with
129,989 rooms.

Of the star-rated hotels, 47.5 percent are located in Java,
12.7 percent in Bali, 21.7 percent in Sumatra, 4 percent in
Kalimantan and 14 percent on other major islands.

According to the directory, 29 star-rated hotels with 6,644
rooms are scheduled to open this year and 18 hotels with 5,924
rooms in 1997.

Five provinces were stated to have an inadequate number of
hotels. As of June, Bengkulu in southern Sumatra had only one
two-star and two one-star hotels with 86 rooms, Central
Kalimantan one two-star hotel with 27 rooms, Central Sulawesi one
two-star and one one-star hotel with 82 rooms, Southeast Sulawesi
two one-star hotels with 54 rooms and East Timor three one-star
hotels with 126 rooms. None are managed by international chains.

Bali, the country's best known tourist destination, has 90
star-rated hotels: 19 five-star, nine four-star, 28 three-star,
27 two-star and seven one-star hotels -- most of which are
managed by international chains such as Sheraton, Inter-
Continental, Hilton, Radisson, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Nikko, Club
Med, Aman, Imperial, and Melia-Sol.

The directory said that Bali, Jakarta and North Sumatra remain
the most popular destinations for foreign visitors, with shares
of 32 percent, 25 percent and 11 percent, respectively.

Indonesia recorded 2,366,341 foreign tourists visiting from
January to July, a 20.7 percent increase over the first seven
months of 1995.

Last year, 4.32 million foreign tourists visited Indonesia,
spending some US$5.2 billion. The country expects to earn more
than $6.57 billion in revenues from about five million overseas
visitors this year.

The proportion of foreign tourists staying at star-rated
hotels during their Indonesian visits increased steadily from
81.19 percent in 1991 to 81.95 percent in 1992, to 82.19 percent
in 1993 and to 88.15 percent in 1994. (icn)