Yogyakarta hoteliers upbeat on recovery

Israr Ardiansyah, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

Most hotels in Yogyakarta have been suffering due to the drop in the number of guests since daily anti-American protests by radicals have prompted many tourists to choose other countries in which to spend their holidays.

However, many of the hotel owners have expressed optimism and demonstrated their determination to survive.

S. Guntur Tampubolon, General Manager of the five-star Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta said here on Friday that his hotel is working harder than ever to expand its promotion despite the drastic decrease in business.

"We'll participate in an overseas travel convention in November," he told The Jakarta Post who interviewed him in conjunction with the hotel's fourth anniversary.

He reiterated that the industry was in shock, saying that this situation is far worse than the hotel's original expectations

"We were eagerly awaiting a tourist boom in 2002 following the success of the East Asian Inter-regional Tourism Forum (EATOF) last month and the planned ASEAN Tourism Forum next January," he added.

"Our monthly occupancy rates for July and August 2001 were the best we ever had since our opening in 1997. But the heightened tension in this country --due to the U.S.-Afghan crisis-- has made our occupancy rate drop to 30 percent."

The 269-room hotel's occupancy rate was previously more than 60 percent on every Friday and Saturday.

Atik Wildan, Hyatt's public relations manager said the hotel had prepared a book titled Jogja Calendar of Events 2002 that will be launched in the near future and circulated overseas.

"By publishing the books, we want to show to the world that Yogyakarta has also many interesting events beside its tourism destination like Borobudur or Prambanan temples. The foreigners should know this province is safe for tourists and hopefully will always be safe," she said.

Records indicated that 78,414 overseas tourists visited the Sultanate province last year.

According to Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, Japanese tourists topped the list of 'Top Five tourism Market in Yogyakarta' in 2000 with 10,286 visitors, followed by tourists from the Netherlands (8,211), France (7,366), the USA (6,049), and Australia (5,071).

"The Japanese tourists still come here but it's hard to get tourists from those other four countries."