Southern Pacific plans more hotels in RI

JAKARTA (JP): PT Southern Pacific Indonesia (SPI), a subsidiary of Australia's Southern Pacific Hotel Corporation Group, will run a three-star Centra hotel owned by PT Graha Chandra Buana, in Semarang, Central Java, this year.

Under a management agreement signed yesterday by SPI president Nigel L. I. Harper and Graha Chandra president Ali Sukarahardja, SPI will manage the hotel for 10 years.

Ali said his company had invested Rp 55 billion (US$22.8 million) for the three-star hotel which was scheduled to open in August.

The new 166-room hotel is on Jl. Mataram, one of Semarang's major business districts.

Semarang has several star-rated hotels, including Pertamina's Patra Jasa, the Gramedia Group's Graha Santika and the Ciputra Hotel, which is managed by Hong Kong's Swiss-bel Hotel.

International chains including Radisson and Holiday Inn also plan to open hotels in Semarang.

Harper said Southern Pacific considered Indonesia a potential market in Asia.

He said Southern Pacific which runs Parkroyal, Centra and Travelodge hotels worldwide, will expand to Medan and Manado in North Sumatra within the next few years.

SPI runs Travelodge Ancol in Jakarta and Sanur Travelodge in Bali.

SPI, which is equally owned by Southern Pacific and a subsidiary of Jan Darmadi Group, would open a Centra Hotel in Wonosobo, Central Java, later this year and one in Surabaya, East Java, next year, he said.

"We will upgrade the Travelodge Ancol and Sanur Travelodge with more facilities and change their names to Parkroyal. We will also open the Bulevar Parkroyal in Slipi, West Jakarta," he said.

Southern Pacific, established in 1958, operates 74 hotels with 12,930 rooms in 11 countries.

Harper said his company planned to run a 1,100 hotel rooms in Indonesia by the end of the year. (icn)