Soeharto to open Hotel Nikko Bali

By I. Christianto

NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): President Soeharto is scheduled to open the five-star Hotel Nikko Bali here today.

The hotel's general manager, Nobuaki Tezuka, said yesterday the 395-room Nikko Bali had been open for soft operations since last May.

"The occupancy rates during the soft operation reached 40 percent, with guests originating mainly from Japan and Indonesia," he said.

He said that the occupancy rate was expected to reach 75 percent by the end of 1997.

Under a 15-year agreement signed on Oct. 2, 1993, JAL Hotels Company Ltd. (JHC) of Japan will manage the hotel built over a 40-meter cliff in steps down to a white sand beach. The hotel has 14 stories.

JHC, a Japan Airlines subsidiary, which manages the four-star President Hotel on Jl. Thamrin in Jakarta, manages 51 hotels overseas.

Tezuka said Nikko planned to manage another hotel in Jakarta.

The Dai-Ichi and Imperial Japanese hotel chains run hotels in Senen, Central Jakarta, and Legian, Bali.

The US$124 million property sits on a 111,190 square-meter plot on the edge of the Badung valley, Sawangan village, Benoa, Kuta regency.

The five-star hotel is controlled by PT Caterison Sukses, a hotel developer owned equally by seven Indonesian businessmen and institutions. They include Sigit Hardjojudanto, the President's eldest son, Sudwikatmono, Hendry Pribadi, Prajogo Pangestu, Harry Sapto Soepoyo, PT Lingbrothers International, owned by Didi Dawis, and PT Nirmala Sumber Makmur, owned by Usman Atmadjaya.

Sudwikatomo said the hotel was part of the 200-hectare Nusa Dua Selatan tourist zone, being developed by a consortium of PT Kedaung International Resort Hotel, PT Suryaraya Idaman, PT Mulyagraha Tatalestari, PT Pentagraha Permata Hotel and PT Caterisono.

Sudwikatmono said he was optimistic the hotel would attract local and foreign tourists, and that it would breakeven in 10 years.

A loan syndicate of BNI 1946, Bank Danamon, Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia, BII, Bank Pacific provided $68 million for the hotel's construction, which began in October 1993.

The hotel has 11 food and drink outlets, a pub, gym, beauty salon, shopping arcade, gift shop, tour and car rental desk and a clinic with a 24-hour doctor on-call service.

Nikko Bali has four royal suites with jacuzzi baths, and a presidential suite with a floor space of 336 square meters, eight times larger than the hotel's typical 42 square-meter rooms.

Bali has more than 14,000 star-rated hotel rooms, belonging to 91 star-rated hotels: 20 five-star hotels, nine four-star hotels, 28 three-star hotels, 27 two-star hotels and seven one-star hotels.

In April 1996, 88 hotels (with 24,483 rooms) were being developed in Bali, while 55 hotels (with 17,159 rooms) were being developed in Jakarta.

Most luxury hotels in Bali are managed by overseas chains including Aman, Accor, Choice, Club Med, General Hotel Management, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Imperial, Inter- Continental, Oberoi, Melia-Sol, Mirage, Radisson, Regent-Four Season, Ritz-Carlton, Sheraton and Shangri-La.

In June there were 8,674 hotels in Indonesia with 194,551 rooms, including 710 star-rated hotels with 67,562 rooms. There were 10 five-star hotels in Jakarta, two in West Java, two in Yogyakarta, two in East Java and 20 in Bali.

Japan is a major tourism market. Of the 4.32 million foreign tourists who arrived in Indonesia in 1995, 566,219 were Japanese. Japan ranked number two after 941,214 Singaporean tourist arrivals. The country's third major tourist source was Taiwan (416,205) followed by Australia (343,222), the United States (168,378) and Britain (168,643).

The Indonesian Tourism Promotion Board projected that Singapore would remain the country's main tourist source. It expects 2.34 million Singaporeans will visit the country in 2000 and 2.77 million in 2005.

Bali is the country's most popular tourist destination, according to the Directorate General of Tourism.

Of the 4.32 million foreign tourists who visited the country in 1995, 33.6 percent went to Bali, 25.9 percent to Jakarta, 9.6 percent to North Sumatra, 8.3 percent to Yogyakarta, 5.5 percent to East Java, 3.6 percent to West Java and 13.5 percent to other destinations.

Of the foreign tourists in 1995, 29.1 percent arrived at Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta, 24.6 percent at Ngurah Rai airport in Bali and 21.8 percent at Hang Nadim airport in Batam.

Of those foreigners traveling to Indonesia in 1995, 62.43 percent came by plane and 36.97 percent by sea.