Hotel industry told to be more innovative
Hotel industry told to be more innovative
JAKARTA (JP): A property tycoon has challenged hoteliers and restaurateurs to be more innovative in their services so that they attract more foreign visitors in the coming era of free trade in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"The trend of the tourist industry in the next few years will shift to 'shopping tourism', so we have to offer something different to foreign visitors so we can compete," businessman Ciputra said yesterday in a seminar.
The seminar, which was held by the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association's Jakarta's branch, focused on the challenges and opportunities of the hotel and restaurant businesses in ASEAN's free trade era.
ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, has agreed to implement its ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement in 2003.
"Indonesian tourist-related businesspeople are not afraid in facing AFTA. They are already strong. Constructing star-rated hotels is easier now than 25 years ago. But how do we attract people to come here?" Ciputra asked yesterday.
Hotels, he said, would be ideally located in the same building or compound as shopping centers.
"The highest occupancy rates among star-rated hotels in Jakarta are recorded by Hotel Ciputra and Grand Hyatt, both which are connected to shopping centers."
According to Ciputra, establishing more shopping centers and shop-lined streets close to hotels in the city would facilitate the country's tourism industry.
The government has encouraged companies to set up shopping centers on several streets in Jakarta, including Jl. Casablanca in the Kuningan area, as on Orchard Road in Singapore, Champs Elysees in Paris and Ginza in Tokyo.
Ciputra, who owns several star-rated hotels in Jakarta and other big cities in Indonesia under the Ciputra and Horison names, said that establishing more shopping facilities would also be ideal in Medan of North Sumatra and Surabaya in East Java.
Indonesia saw the arrivals of 4.31 million foreign tourists in 1995, indicating an increase of 7 percent over 1994. Foreign visitors last year brought in US$5.2 billion in foreign exchange, up 9.4 percent from the previous year.
The government has targeted to net 11 million foreign visitors, bringing in at least $15 billion in foreign exchange revenue for the country in 2005.
Ciputra also advised restaurateurs to prepare more traditional Indonesian menus.
"I believe Indonesian dishes can compete with foreign food offered through license in Indonesia," he said.
He also urged domestic hotel management firms yesterday to improve their performance in competing with overseas hotel chains operating in Indonesia.
"Foreign hotel chains, most of which have no equity in the hotels they manage, usually earned 3 percent from sales and 7.5 percent from gross operating profits of the hotels per year. We expend about $14 billion per year for such franchising or management services," he said.
There are currently over 45 overseas hotel chains operating in Indonesia.
Ciputra said it was also important for the domestic hotel chains to expand operations abroad by managing hotels or making investments in projects there.
He said that one of his companies had expanded into Hanoi by establishing a "new city" called CitraRaya worth $500 million, in addition to running a Horison hotel in the Vietnamese city. (icn)