Commanding the Waves
Budget carrier Lion Mentari Airlines says it is keen to expand its presence in Manado, adding cruise shifts to the flights and accommodation it already offers in the North Sulawesi capital.
Lion’s full-service spinoff Batik Air flew its maiden flight from Jakarta to Manado on Friday, and the company also operates a 170-room four-star hotel in the city.
“We will provide cruise ships here, catering to tourists who want to see Bunaken and Raja Ampat,” president director Rusdi Kirana said over the weekend, referring to Bunaken National Park, a marine park north of Sulawesi, and the Raja Ampat islands of West Papua.
“We want to support Manado as a hub in eastern Indonesia,” Rusdi said, declining to give details on the timing or size of the cruise ship investment. The company will target tourists from east Asia, Rusdi said.
Batik Air plans to open its first international route between Manado and Guangzhou in China by the fourth quarter of this year, easing access to and from other east Asian cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul.
“Manado is nearer to East Asia compared to Jakarta, so the costs would be cheaper,” Rusdi said.
Lion also plans to open a pilot and aerospace school in Manado to support its business there, he added.
Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, said the government is planning to expand Manado’s Sam Ratulangi Airport so that it can service long-haul aircraft used on many international routes. “Manado will be incredible. So we must be aggressive in developing our connectivity,” Hatta said.
In March, Lion launched Malindo Airlines through a partnership with Malaysia’s National Aerospace and Defense Industries to service Malaysia.
The airline has recently made massive purchases of fleet from Airbus and Boeing, but its safety record entered the spotlight after an April water landing in Bali.
Batam – Bintan bridge?
Fadli, The Jakarta Post, Batam | Archipelago |
The South Korean government has established a team to conduct a feasibility study on the construction of a 7-kilometer-long bridge that will connect Batam and Bintan Island.
The team, which comprises academicians under the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica), will kick off the study at the beginning of 2013. The results of the feasibility study will later be compared to the study conducted by the Bandung Institute of Technology’s Research Affiliation Body (LAPI-ITB) in 2005.
“The South Korean government and the Batam Free Trade Zone Authority [BPK FTZ] are cooperating on several projects. One of them is the Batam–Bintan bridge project. We will start with the feasible study first,” said South Korean Ambassador to Indonesia Kim Young Sun on the sidelines of a meeting with BPK FTZ head Mustofa Wijaya in Batam, Riau Islands, on Thursday.
The bridge will consist of three parts: a 2.2-kilometer stretch between Batam and Tanjung Sauh, a 3.9-kilometer stretch connecting Tanjung Sauh and Buau Island and a 700-meter stretch connecting Buau and Bintan.
The construction of the bridge is estimated to cost more than Rp 3 trillion (US$310 million).
Mustofa revealed that South Korea was only one of many countries that were interested in building the bridge.
The BPK FTZ has previously worked with South Korean government on the e-government system and an eco-friendly waste disposal system in Batam. (tgh)
Best Place To Buy Property In Asia is…
Indonesia’s overpopulated capital is predicted to be Asia-Pacific’s top real estate market in 2013. Dubbed ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate – Asia Pacific 2013’, the report says Indonesia’s economic turnaround driven by a strong domestic demand and resource-oriented economy has impressed (and lured) international investors.
According to the report, Indonesia’s interest and inflations rates are very much under control, while its GDP is growing at an impressive 6.5% annually. However, the country’s main economic driver is foreign direct investment, which is increasing at a much higher rate: 39% in the first half of this year.
Property services firm DTZ recently reported that office rents surged 29% year-on-year in Q3 2012, largely driven by demand from foreigners and locals alike.
Strong growth has helped Jakarta jump 10 places from its 2011 ranking. However, PricewaterhouseCoopers cautions that the city’s real estate is not entirely rosy. Difficulties in finding inexpensive bank loans, trustworthy local partners and land with disputed ownership all spell ‘buyers beware’.
Below is the report’s top 15 cities in the Asia-Pacific for real estate investment.
1. Jakarta, Indonesia
2. Shanghai, China
3. Singapore
4. Sydney, Australia
5. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
6. Bangkok, Thailand
7. Beijing, China
8. China’s second-tier cities, such as Chongqing, Tianjin, and Shenyang
9. Taipei, Taiwan
10. Melbourne, Australia
11. Hong Kong
12. Manila, Philippines
13. Tokyo, Japan
14. Seoul, South Korea
15. Guangzhou, China
Source : Thailand-business-news.com
Jakarta outshines Singapore
By Tassia Sipahutar
Jakarta ranks first on the most preferred destinations list for real estate investment, according to the “Emerging Trends in Real Estate: Asia Pacific 2013” survey report, published jointly by Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It shot up to the number one position from 11th place and overthrew Singapore, which topped the list last year.
The report shows that Jakarta leads both city investment prospects and city development prospects lists with scores reaching 6.01 and 6.10, respectively, outperforming Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney and Kuala Lumpur.
For the report, ULI, a nonprofit research institute, and PwC interviewed and surveyed over 400 individuals, which represented various industry experts, including investors, fund managers, developers, property companies, lenders, brokers, advisers and consultants.
The report found that demand for property in Jakarta was strong, supported by Indonesia’s stable interest rates and inflation, steady gross domestic product (GDP) growth and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI). “FDI grew by 39 percent in the first half of 2012, while year-to-year office rent leaped by 29 percent,” the report says.
The report quoted one executive who said that “getting things done” in Indonesia was relatively easy compared to other markets such as Vietnam. Another executive, who worked for a large developer, said that Indonesia was going through a “boom period” and everyone was looking at it “very aggressively”.
In the retail market sector, Jakarta topped the list, driven by its growing consumer spending power, followed by Shanghai, China’s secondary markets, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila.
However, the report warns that Jakarta‘s retail market will prove tough for average investors to tap. About 53.5 percent of the respondents recommended buying retail properties in Jakarta, followed by 39.4 percent who recommended holding buying or selling the properties and 7.1 percent who recommended selling them.
Once again, Jakarta took the top spot in office and residential sectors. In the office sector, 52.3 percent of the respondents suggested buying properties in the city, while as many as 37.6 percent of them recommended holding and 10.1 percent recommended selling. Tokyo and China’s secondary markets placed second and third in the office sector list, respectively.
However, despite Jakarta’s achievements in the survey, the city being named top pick still came “unexpectedly”, according to the report.
“Jakarta lacks the enterprise, scale and infrastructure of its more developed peers, and perhaps, most importantly, lacks the capacity to absorb large amounts of real estate investment,” the report says, adding that Jakarta attracted a modest US$660.5 million in commercial real estate investment in 2011.
Besides infrastructure problems, ULI and PwC also warned investors about potential financial difficulties in running their operations in Indonesia as bank loans were expensive and hard to find.
Jones Lang LaSalle Indonesia head of research Anton Sitorus said he predicted that Jakarta would top the list again in the next few years, citing the city’s steady economic growth and higher market transparency.
“The region’s economy has not improved as much as Jakarta’s. Meanwhile, investors will always look for markets with prominent growth and Jakarta is one of them, regardless of its congestion-, infrastructure- and regulation-related issues,” he said.
(The Jakarta Post)
Next Level
Next Level adalah sebuah fashion exhibition tahunan yang untuk pertama kalinya diadakan di Sampoerna Strategic Square pada January 2012 kemarin. Acara ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan pemuda Indonesia untuk lebih kreatif dan produktif serta menumbuhkan jiwa kompetitif yang nantinya dapat bersaing dengan pasar yang lebih luas lalu dapat berlanjut ke level berikutnya. Hal tersebut sangat sesuai dengan konsep yang diusung pada Next Level tahun 2013 yaitu “for, from, and by Indonesian youth”.
Tanggal: 1,2,3 February 2013
Venue: KOTA KASABLANKA
Waktu: 12.00 – finish
Kurang lebih 80 brand fashion lokal asli produksi anak muda Indonesia akan terlibat dalam acara yang akan berlangsung pada awal tahun depan di Kota Kasablanka, brand-brand tersebut akan dipamerkan dan dijual dalam booth-booth yang menarik selama 3 hari berlangsungnya acara. Selain diperjualbelikan, seluruh brand dalam acara ini akan dipertunjukan dalam fashion show selama 3 hari yang akan menggunakan kurang lebih 100 model dan ratusan undangan eksklusif (selebritas, desainer senior, tokoh pemuda, birokrat) agar mereka dapat melihat bahwa produk lokal yang dihasilkan oleh pemuda Indonesia memiliki kualitas yang dapat bersaing dengan pasar lokal dan internasional.
Selama 3 hari akan ada penampilan musik akustik dari musisi-musisi lokal berbakat serta pada “closing event” di hari terakhir selain pagelaran musik besar juga ada pemberian “Awards” untuk “Best Display” dan “Best Seller” yang akan mendapatkan plakat dan hadiah lainnya. Hal tersebut tentu dapat menstimulus anak muda Indonesia untuk lebih berkarya dan berdaya juang tinggi. Kami, Next Level, merupakan media untuk memajukan industri kreatif, khususnya industri fesyen tanah air, agar lebih berkelanjutan dan terus mengalami kemajuan. We’ll take you to the Next Level!
Untuk pertanyaan :
- info@nextlevelindo.com
Untuk pendaftaran brand :
- Kirim lookbook ke brand@nextlevelindo.com
- Buka www.nextlevelindo.com/tenant untuk syarat dan ketentuan lainnya
Follow us : @nextlevelindo
Visit : www.nextlevelindo.com
World’s Fifth Tallest Tower..soon.
Jakarta’s skyline is set to change in a dramatic way with the planned development of the US$2-billion Signature Tower attesting to Indonesia’s new economic confidence.
Rising 111 storeys and 635 metres, including 70 floors of office space, the building planned by Indonesian tycoon Tommy Winata would be the fifth tallest in the world and would eclipse Petronas Towers as the tallest in Asean.
Mr Winata’s Artha Graha Network, through subsidiary PT Danayasa Arthatama Tbk, has chosen MGM Hospitality to manage the hotel and serviced apartments in the tower in the central business district of Sudirman in Jakarta
“The presence of MGM will bring new colour and a vibrant atmosphere to the Jakarta metropolis, so that it becomes equivalent to other metropolitan cities in the world,” said Santoso Gunara, president of PT Danayasa Arthatama Tbk.
The developers are currently lining up project financing, which will consist of internal cash flow and bank loans. Construction is expected to start this year and to be completed in 2017.
Mr Gunara expects the tower, with a height of 635 metres, will be acknowledged as the fifth tallest building in the world by The Skycraper Center owned by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai, at 829.8 metres, is currently the world’s tallest building. Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, would set the record at 1,000 metres if it gets built as planned by 2017 or 2018. The Petronas complex in Kuala Lumpur is ranked 31st with a height of 452 metres and 88 floors.
US-based MGM Hospitality will manage 290 luxury rooms in the Bellagio Hotel, which will take up the top 20 floors of the Jakarta development. The same company will also manage 350 hotel rooms and serviced apartments in the south tower under its MGM Grand Hotel & Serviced Apartments brand.
The two towers will be connected by a nine-floor podium featuring retail space and the MGM Jakarta Convention Center, which will cover 15,000 square metres and can accommodate activities for 6,000 people or more.
With experience managing some of the world’s top hotels and convention centres in Las Vegas, Detroit, Beijing, Tianjin, Macau, Mumbai, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Cairo, MGM expects to bring more world-class conferences and entertainment to Jakarta.
The developers led by Mr Winata and Mr Gunara officially signed the agreement with MGM Hospitality in Las Vegas on May 21.
Established in 1987 and listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in December 2009, PT Danayasa Arthatama Tbk is the developer of the Sudirman Business Center District (SCBD), an integrated site covering 45 hectares in Jakarta.
Artha Graha Network is engaged in property business, IT and telecommunications, agro-industry, mining, finance, media and entertainment, as well as infrastructure.
Artha Graha, through PT Graha Banten Lampung Sejahtera, is also working on feasibility studies for the 29-kilometre Sunda Strait Bridge, valued at an estimated $10.9 billion, which would link Java and Sumatra.
Uganda can copy Indonesia template
Earlier this year, the United Nations Population Fund announced that Uganda’s maternal mortality rates had reduced from 435 deaths per 100,000 live births to 310 deaths per 100,000 live births. This showed that the country had made some progress in bringing down deaths women suffer when bearing a life.
A cursory look at the figures makes for good reading, but a deeper probe shows that Uganda is still some way off from achieving Millennium Development Goal No.5, which implores countries to reduce maternal mortality to at least 151 deaths per 100,000 live births. In fact, statistics from the Uganda Demographic Health Survey report of 2011 show that the maternal mortality ratio increased from 435 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2006 to 438 deaths.
Women continue to die from preventable causes like infections, over bleeding and abortions. Many of them cannot reach health centres in time, while more continue to die at home because they do not deliver with the help of a skilled medical personnel. Uganda has the third fastest growing population in the world, behind Niger and Yemen, with an annual growth rate of 3.2 percent (every woman having an average of seven children).
Dr Charles Kiggundu, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, says there are two million conceptions in Uganda every year, but between 200,000 and 300,000 of these miscarry or abort spontaneously. A further 350,000 abortions are induced.
“Ninety thousand of the induced abortions end up with severe complications, but only a half of them access post abortion services. Only half of the women with complications seek medical care. A few survive, but many others die,” Dr Kiggundu says.
One of the sure ways to reducing maternal deaths in Uganda is by preventing pregnancy through provision of contraceptives to women who need them. Currently, the unmet need for family planning stands at 40 percent.
Indonesia case study
Fifty years ago, Indonesia was on the same standing as Uganda — her population growth was high, women were dying and the fertility rate was high. The country realized that the problems of population and development are basic problems if Indonesia wants to provide better living conditions for its people.
To reduce population growth and maternal deaths, Indonesia’s leaders realised that some controls needed to be instituted. So, they started the “Two Children are Enough” campaign to encourage families to have no more than two children. The campaign needed a national leader with a vision and a comprehensive approach — one who understood the social-cultural aspect of the people.
President Suharto provided the needed support. The campaign also needed a leader in the population field, who would be able to communicate population-related issues, including family planning, to relevant stakeholders. To achieve its goal, the National Population and Family Planning, Indonesia (BKKBN) mobilized members of rural communities to participate in program planning and in the provision of services.
Since clinic-based services were inadequate in reaching a large number of people in the countryside, the family planning programme engaged in widespread outreach and community participation at the village level. At the peak, the rural programme included nearly 40,000 field workers and more than 100,000 volunteers.
“The rural family planning personnel typically would make home visits to discuss family planning methods, provide counselling, and make referrals to community health centres. An innovative, strategically designed, large-scale, multi-pronged, and long-term communication campaign was designed to create a small-family social norm, to increase people’s interest in having fewer children, and to generate demand for family planning services,” says Dr Eddy Hasmi, BKKBN director of international training and collaboration.
The “small, happy, and prosperous family” campaign message became the unifying theme of all programme communication materials at all levels.
The campaign slogan “Two children are enough” became etched in stone —literally, as bridges and mile posts on the major highways carried the it — and eventually became embedded in the national consciousness. The strategy in rural areas was outreach through interpersonal communication that engaged communities through the combination of fieldworkers, health providers (including village-based midwives), and community-based volunteers.
To encourage self-reliance in rural areas, the programme built up the role of private sector midwives. The initiative trained 50,000 village midwives who provided family planning. Dr Sugiri Syarief, head of the population body, says BKKBN came to report directly to the president and was placed in a stronger political position in its coordination with other governmental agencies.
Reaping benefits
As a result, the percentage of family planning clients who obtain their contraception from the private sector grew from less than 18 percent in the early 1980s to an estimated 69 percent in 2007. Dr Hasmi adds that when the programme was implemented, fertility declined sharply, from 5.6 to 2.2 births per woman during the 1970s-2000s.
“This decline has slowed population growth and hence reduced its effects on public services such as education, health and infrastructure, and then has brought improvements in standards of living,” Dr Hasmi says.
“At the family level, wanted children bring joy and social and economic benefits to their parents, while unwanted births unnecessarily raise family expenses for food, clothes, shelter, schooling and health care, as well as time devoted to childcare and rearing,” he adds.
The family planning programme has successfully averted around 100 million births. It was indicated that if the programme had not been successful, Indonesia’s population in 2010 would be about 326 million. Thanks to family planning, it was 237.6 million that year. During the 1970s and 1980s, Indonesia trained nearly 700 PhD and Masters students in population issues, both overseas and within the country.
The programme also developed effective mechanisms for quick resource disbursement. Furthermore, the management also developed data and reporting systems and built research capacity so that program decisions could be based on evidence and scientific analysis. Starting this year, family planning has been integrated into universal coverage of the maternal and neonatal health program that was launched by government in 2011.
This programme was introduced free of charge for prenatal, delivery and antenatal care, as well as family planning postpartum, in health centre facilities for all families. As a result, there are between 4.2 to 4.4 million births per year in Indonesia. In addition, intrauterine devices (IUDs), condoms and implants are provided free of charge to all couples that need them. Thus, in Indonesia today, with the exception of pills and injectables, contraceptives, including long-term contraceptive devices, are provided free of cost.
What next, Uganda?
In July, President Yoweri Museveni finally threw his weight behind the family planning campaign when he announced that his government is committed to increasing family planning options and reducing maternal deaths. Some $5m will be provided every year for the next five years towards access to contraceptives.
While 90 percent of the population has knowledge of family planning, contraceptive use is still very low. People do not value small families and hence do not use contraceptives. Dr Olive Sentumbwe, family health and population advisor at the World Health Organisation in Uganda, says communities need to realise the effect of many pregnancies on a woman. Every pregnancy leaves a woman scarred for life, yet more families continue to have children they cannot take care of.
More women continue to die during pregnancy, child birth and post natal. If Uganda could take a leaf from Indonesia, we might avert maternal deaths and, at the same time, reduce on population growth, which is projected to reach 60 million by 2030 and 100 million by 2050.
smwesigye@observer.ug
The Observer – Uganda
World’s most Twitter-happy city
“Twitterpated” is a seldom used term that describes the rush of emotions one feels when one falls head over heels in love. One thing is for sure: the bustling city of Jakarta, Indonesia is “twitterpated” with social networking device Twitter, placing it above Tokyo, London, Sao Paulo and New York in terms of Twitter activity.
These are the findings of Semiocast, a Paris-based research company. Bandung, Jakarta’s neighboring city and Indonesia’s second largest metropolitan area, ranked sixth.
The study also found that in six short months, the number of users across the board on the social media site had increased by 50 percent.
Twitter is still growing fast in the region, long after its heyday with the popularity of social networking sites during the Arab uprisings of last year.
Twitter maintains a very strong presence in the Arab world, with Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh ranked number ten on the list. The number of registered users in the kingdom grew by more than 93 percent in six months, to reach 2.9 million users. Arabic is also now the sixth most popular language on Twitter, used in 2.8 percent of all public tweets.
The United States remains the leader in terms of overall share of Twitter users, with 27.4 percent, with 141.8 million accounts. Users in the U.S. posted 25.8 percent of all public tweets in June 2012.
It most be noted that while the U.S. is the leader in terms of share of accounts, growth is higher elsewhere.
The registration rate in Brazil is extremely high. The number of Twitter accounts increased from 33.3 million to 41.2 million between January and July of this year. Brazilians now represent eight percent of all Twitter accounts.
Japan lost its footing as being second place in the user rankings to Brazil, but continues to have one of the highest rates of usage.
In June 2012, 10.6 percent of all public tweets were posted from Japan, while Japanese users represent 6.7 percent of all Twitter users. Japanese remains the second most used language on Twitter after English.
Tokyo ranked second on the list of most active cities by tweets, followed by London, Sao Paolo and New York to round out the top five.
The top ten countries most twitterpated by Twitter are the U.S., Brazil, Japan, the UK, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Canada, Spain and the Philippines.
© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
Here Comes the Hybrid
The Indonesian government plans to start production of electric car in a huge number next year which can help with the country’s effort in reducing large amount of oil subsidy and cutting gas emission, China’s Xinhua news agency cited a media report quoting a minister as saying here on Tuesday.
Indonesian State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said that the government had been preparing the infrastructure for the plan.
“If the infrastructure is ready, we can start mass producing the car with a capacity of 5,000 units per year,” he was quoted by the Jakarta globe as saying.
At the end of June, Indonesia Agency For the Assessment and Application Technology launched its prototypes of battery-powered car and bus.
Deputy Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Rudi Rubiandini has said that the government plans to use the hybrid car and bus as public transport facility in the cities.
Minister Dahlan said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has already instructed the ministers for industry, research and technology and trade to work on the necessary regulations.
“Within the next three months, there should be a clear technical guide for commercial regulations, so that the car can be mass produced,” he said.
The Southeast Asia’a largest economy is a net oil importer, provides huge amount of oil subsidy, and has joined global effort to slow global warming by committing to trim gas emission by 26 percent by 2020 and to extended it to 41 percent under the international financial aids.
Source : New Straits Times
Here to Stay !
Fueled by steady economic growth exceeding 6% annually, the rise of Indonesia’s middle class and its impact on the hotel landscape were prominent themes at Travel Trends’ No Vacancy conference in Bangkok last week.
Of the 248 million people in Indonesia, 50 million, or approximately 20%, are middle class, said Sonia Kapoor, client service director for Nielsen Singapore. That group has between $4 and $20 each day to save or spend on leisure activities and will comprise 50% of the population by 2030, she said.
The number of new hotels being built or in the pipeline is unknown. The breakdown of travelers also is hazy, but Scott Blume, group CEO of PT Raja Kumar International, provided an estimate: “At least 25% is probably business travel and the travelers are staying in the 3- to 3-and-a-half-star range hotels. That’s 400,000 to 500,000 rupiah, or about $40.”
In Bali, where InterContinental Hotels Group operates two hotels, only 35% of guests are Indonesians, but at its 10 additional hotels in the country, 95% is domestic, said Mark Flower, IHG’s commercial director for Southeast Asia.
3- and 4-stars prevail
David G.A. Perry, GM of the Gran Melia Jakarta, said budget accommodation is the fastest growing segment and is driven by domestic travelers. But higher-priced accommodation also is flourishing, he said during a telephone interview.
“The good news is that as all the 3- and 4-star hotels fill, the 5-star hotels are able to get better rates,” he said. “The Indonesian who has flown here from Medan on a $10 flight isn’t going to stay in a 5-star. But to the international traveler who has spent $600 on a flight, $230 a night seems like a good deal.”
Perry said the region’s economy has been pushed along by investment in industrial, mining, automobiles and motorbike manufacturing.
“Honda has its biggest motorbike factory here. So much corporate travel is associated with it. I think for Singapore Airlines, the Singapore-Jakarta route is its busiest and nearly all planes are wide-bodied. There’s a (Boeing) 737 every half-hour and a 777 every 15 minutes.”
In 2011, the number of international arrivals to Indonesia increased by approximately 9% for a total of 7.6 million, according to John Koldowski, special strategic advisor to the Pacific Asia Travel Association. There were 5.5 million foreign visitors in 2007.
Digging into development
The 15-year-old Gran Melia has been undergoing a total overhaul of its 400 rooms and public areas during the past year. “By the end of the year, we’ll be firmly in the truly 5-star category,” GM Perry said. Most of the guests are from Southeast Asia and northern Asia.
Spanish-owned Melia Hotels International, which operates two Bali hotels, will soon announce plans for three additional Indonesia hotels in the 4- to 5-star range, he said. One will be in the secondary Java city of Surabaya. Perry said that he expects double-digit revenue-per-available-room growth for his hotel in the next few years.
For May 2012, STR Global, sister company of HotelNewsNow.com, found that overall RevPAR in Indonesia was equivalent to $71.63, compared to $66.68 in May 2011. Occupancy in May was 67.9%, up slightly from 67.2% the year before. The average daily room rate crept up more significantly, from $99 to $105.
IHG will soon open Holiday Inn Express hotels in Bali, Surabaya and Jakarta, Flower said. Earlier this year, the brand was launched in Southeast Asia with three outlets in Thailand.
Accor is another group which has been busy in Indonesia. It has opened a dozen hotels in Indonesia during the past 18 months, making a total of 62, according to an Indonesia spokesman for the French hotel group. The new hotels include two Pullman hotels in Jakarta. But there were also five in the Ibis and Ibis Styles economy brands. Four more hotels will open by the end of the year, including two of the mid-market Mercure properties in Jakarta.
Mark van Ogtrop, Southeast Asian director of Golden Tulip Hospitality, said at last year’s No Vacancy meeting the Dutch hotel group planned to open 20 hotels at the 2-star level in secondary Indonesian cities.
Catering to the Indonesian traveler
While Indonesians are eager to travel, marketing methods that succeed in other Asian countries don’t always transfer. Indonesia’s per capita income of $3,500 last year was $1,000 more than that of the Philippines, yet Nielsen surveys found that, while 42% of Filipino Internet users (and almost 70% of Singaporeans) booked or bought travel items online last year, only 6% of Indonesians did.
Mobile ownership is “virtually universal” among Indonesian adults, said Kapoor, and Indonesians are far more likely to access the Internet by their mobile phones than Filipinos, Malaysians, Singaporeans and Thais.
Yet Indonesians rarely spend their online time sending email or reading comments about products as their counterparts do. Indonesians spend virtually all their time sending text messages, browsing others’ online profiles or interacting on social networks; 90% of Indonesian digital users have an active Facebook profile.
When PT Raja’s Blume moved from Singapore’s Zuji-Travelocity to Jakarta a few years ago, he quickly concluded that a similar seamless online system to booking a room and travel “will never work” in Indonesia. Not only do the few credit cards owned by Indonesians have payment limits of a few hundred dollars, but novice Indonesian travelers require some human interaction when booking.
Visitors can’t even book online on RKI’s RajaKumar.com. The site, which is in the Bahasa Indonesia language, contains content on shopping, activities and restaurants as well as hotels in cities and towns throughout the sprawling archipelago. When customers want to make a reservation, they phone RajaKumar’s call center, provide their banking particulars and then call their own bank to confirm the sale.
The process sounds cumbersome but is fast and well-established in Indonesia, Blume insists. “It also cuts down on fees to other facilities.”
Global online-travel agencies, catering to inbound traffic, include many hotels in both Jakarta and Bali but don’t list hotels in the secondary cities of the archipelago.
RKI’s MG Holiday, a business-to-business company linking Indonesian hotels throughout the country with tour companies and travel agencies, attempts to better represent Indonesia’s hotel offerings with listings in remote Papua and Sumatra. The bulk, however, is in 10 cities.
The platform eschews major OTAs, Blume said.
“We sold over 700,000 room nights in the past year with an (average daily rate) a little under $80 per night. We also sell a massive number of 3- and 3-and-a-half star hotels.”
