Stiff competition for hotels in Yogya
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Competition among star-rated hotels in this province will get stiffer in the coming years as tourist arrivals increase at a slower pace than the construction of new rooms.
An executive of Phoenix Heritage, Nina Arimurti, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that several star-rated hotels in the city have started a price war which may cause unhealthy competition.
"There are hotels which offer discounts of up to 60 percent of the published rates to corporate guests and 50 percent to walk-in guest in the low season," she said.
There are 15 star-rated hotels in Yogyakarta, including Aquila Prambanan, Melia Purosani (all five stars), Ambarrukmo, Santika, Natour Garuda (four stars), Mutiara, Phoenix and Palace (three stars), offering more than 2,300 rooms, in addition to smaller hotels with more than 6,000 rooms.
A number of luxury hotels, which will be managed by international chains, will be constructed soon, including Sheraton, Radisson, Novotel, Hyatt and Holiday Inn.
Data from the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications shows that Yogyakarta ranked fourth last year among the most frequented tourist destinations in the country (attracting 7.4 percent of foreign tourists), after Bali (31.9 percent), Jakarta (24.5 percent) and North Sumatra (12.2 percent). Indonesia recorded 3.4 million foreign visitors last year, earning US$3.6 billion in foreign exchange.
The tourism industry in Yogyakarta is actually related tightly with other destinations.
Entertainment
Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications Joop Ave, said recently that the city lacks night entertainment.
"That's very true," Nina said. "The length of stay in the city is currently very low, only 1.6 days, as compared to the national rate of 11 days."
The data shows that length of stays reached 2.1 in 1991, 1.7 in 1992 and 1.8 in 1993.
But the figures will likely be better within the next few years as the government is currently developing a tourism triangle linking the Borobudur temple in Magelang, to the north, the Prambanan temple about 18 kilometers east and the Kraton (palace) in the city, she said.
"The development of the Adi Sumarmo airport in Solo as one of Indonesia's international airports and the planned construction of a Solo-Yogyakarta toll road will likely encourage visitors to come here," she said. Solo is about a one hour drive from Yogyakarta.
Phoenix' general manager, Ito R. Sukarmadji, told the Post that the government has closed Yogyakarta for investments in new star-rated hotels since July to avoid a room oversupply.
Ito, who is also an executive of the Indonesia Hotel and Restaurant Association, said the hotel industry in Yogyakarta is just like the one in Bali two or three years ago, when the island suffered from a room oversupply.
The star-rated hotels now under construction received government approvals several years ago, he said.
"The Yogyakarta chapter of the association is currently discussing establishing a local board for tourism promotion like the Indonesia Tourism Promotion Board in Jakarta," he said.(icn)