JAKARTA. Jakarta and Palembang will be the hosts of 2018 Asian Games. The numbers of foreign athletes and tourists will visit the two cities during the event. The Asian Games event brings business opportunities for hospitality business. Some hoteliers, including Sahid Jaya International, plan to expand the business.

According to Director of Sahid International Hotel Vivi Herlambang, the company will open two new hotels in the next year. The hotels will be located in East Jakarta and Bogor. The two hotels will be ready to host the guests in the second semester of 2018. “There will be total new 300 rooms,” Vivi told KONTAN, Monday (23/1). The new hotels in East Jakarta and Bogor will be three-star and four-star hotels, respectively.

Vivi predicts that the Asian Games event will increase hotel occupancy rate by 10%. “To date, the occupancy rate of hotels in Jakarta is around 50%. During the Asian Games, the hotels’ occupancy rate might be 60%,” she said.

Aside of the two hotels, Sahid is also planning to open another hotel in Serpong area. However, the hotel will have just started operating in 2019. According to Sriwijaya Post, there were constructions of 20 new hotels, mostly budget hotel, in Palembang. The projects will increase the number of rooms by 3,000 units from 7,000 units to 10,000 units.

However, one of the hoteliers PT Surya Semesta Internusa Tbk (SSIA) has not yet predicted the hotels’ occupancy level during the Asian Games event. This developer operates hotels under the label of Hotel Batiqa in Greater Jakarta (Jabodetabek) area, Cirebon, and Palembang.

(Muhammad Farid/Translator)

Editor: Rizki Caturini