Sahid International, Park Plaza forms alliance

JAKARTA (JP): Sahid International Hotel Management and Consultant will form an alliance with Park Plaza International (PPI) Asia Pacific Pty Ltd to jointly tap the growing hotel industry in the region.

Under a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed yesterday, the two hotel chains agreed to cooperate in marketing and sales as well as in the development of human resources in the hotel industry.

The chairman and president of the Sahid Group, Sukamdani Sahid Gitosardjono, said the companies would first set up a committee before becoming fully engaged in the planned strategic alliance.

"We are offering cooperation in technical assistance, an operating management agreement and a franchise," he said after the MOU signing.

But when asked if Sahid was planning to sell some of its stake or assets to Park Plaza as part of the agreement, Sukamdani said they had no intention of doing so.

Sahid might offer technical assistance or its franchise license to PPI Asia Pacific, which is fully owned by Malaysia- based Kemayan Hotels and Leisure Ltd, he said.

"In the dawn of globalization, we have to be able to compete and strengthen our market position in marketing, information and investment through alliances like this," he said.

Under the alliance, the Park Plaza Global Hotel network would be represented in Indonesia by Sahid Hotels, which would provide customers a wide range of hotel choices, he said.

Sahid Hotels would be connected with Park Plaza's worldwide reservation system, Rapidex 8000, which was linked to all major airline reservation systems and generated business from 450,000 travel agencies worldwide, he said.

Kemayan Hotels and Leisure, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, holds the license to operate the U.S.-based Park Plaza chain in the Asia-Pacific.

Kemayan has 24 hotels in seven countries under its management, joining the worldwide network of over 140 Park Plaza and Park Inn International hotels.

Sahid Hotels is the largest Indonesian-owned independent hotel group with 24 three- to five-star hotels in the country and in the Middle East.

Sukamdani said he estimated that the occupancy rate of hotels dropped to between 10 percent and 25 percent in the country this year due to the currency crisis, which had pushed the rupiah's value down by about 60 percent against the U.S. dollar since July.

He said the hotel industry had been dealt a double blow this year, with the currency crisis and the haze caused by forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, which affected tourism and occupancy rates.

"Asia was our main market share for tourism, since a recession hit Europe," he said.

Despite the rupiah's sharp fall, he said Sahid Hotels used a fixed rate to convert U.S. dollars to rupiah at a rate of Rp 4,000/dollar in a bid to lure domestic visitors.

The dollar is now being sold in the market for about Rp 6,000, an over 100 percent rise since July.

Indonesian star-rated hotels usually charge customers in U.S. dollars. (das)