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)