Soeharto to open Hotel Nikko Bali

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.