Hotel occupancy rates drop sharply

Hotel occupancy rates drop sharply

SEMARANG, Central Java: Hotels here have experienced a sharp
drop in foreign patrons in recent days following a spate of riots
that have rocked parts of the country, hoteliers said.

Graha Santika hotel spokesman Deiny Agung Moejantoro said
yesterday the hotel had seen the nightly room occupancy rate drop
from 50 percent to 27 percent.

According to Deiny, most of their foreign guests heeded
instructions from their respective embassies to leave Indonesia
due to the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the country.

Christiani Hartono of Ciputra Hotel's sales department
reported a similar situation.

"We can not control them, it's their right to check out early.
Most of the expatriates have been working with state-owned
companies like Telkom and electric generator companies."

Both said many hotel guests were from Belgium, the
Netherlands, the U.S., Sweden, Italy, Korea, the Philippines,
Singapore, India and Malaysia.

Towns near here such as Surakarta, Karanganyar, Boyolali,
Sukoharjo and Sragen were hit by riots last week. The rioting
prompted many tourists to cancel their room reservations, the
hoteliers said. (har)