T

wo more companies announced on Wednesday their planned expansions into the hotel business to tap into the country’s growing leisure and business travel sectors, following the entry of several other firms into the business recently.

Publicly listed property developer PT Intiland Development through its subsidiary PT Intiwhiz International is set to run 31 hotels in major and second-tier cities nationwide over the next two years, while state-owned construction company PT Adhi Karya (ADHI) said it would enter the hotel business next year with the construction of four hotels.

Intiwhiz International executive director Ndang Mulyadi said in Jakarta on Wednesday that in addition to the capital, the company’s budget hotels under the brand Whiz Hotel and mid-scale hotels under the name Grand Whiz Hotel would be opening in Bogor, West Java; Malang and Surabaya, East Java; Denpasar, Sanur, and Nusa Dua, Bali; Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan; Makassar, South Sulawesi and Manado, North Sulawesi.

According to president director and CEO Moedjianto S. Tjahjono, the firm is investing approximately Rp 2 trillion (US$208 million) for a total 31 hotels they plan to build.

As of today, Intiwhiz operates five hotels in Java and Bali, which have an average 70 percent occupancy rate.

Meanwhile, ADHI said it would enter the hotel business next year with the construction of four hotels under the brand name GranDhika in Bandung, Jakarta and Surabaya.

“We are preparing to construct four hotels, two of which will be established in or near Jakarta,” Renny Soviahani, head of ADHI’s property and hotel division, said.

She added that the company would commence construction of the hotels in Blok M, South Jakarta, and Bekasi, West Java, in January.

“The GranDhika Hotel in Blok M will be a four-star hotel built on land measuring approximately 2,740 square meters and it will have 250 rooms,” she said, adding that the hotel required Rp 205 billion in investment.

Meanwhile, the three-star GranDhika Hotel in Bekasi, which will cost Rp 67 billion to build, would become part of Grand Dhika City, a integrated complex consisting of apartments and offices, she added.

She further said that the constructor aimed to complete construction of the two hotels by the end of 2013.

She said construction on the two remaining hotels in Bandung and Surabaya would commence later in the first quarter of 2013 because more paperwork was required as the planned hotels stood on land belonging to other state-owned enterprises.

Increasing demand by business and leisure travelers in Indonesia has encouraged a number of companies to enter the hospitality sector despite it is not being their core business.

Panorama Hospitality Management (PHM), a subsidiary of the country’s largest travel and tour company Panorama, has announced it is to open 25 hotels with two-star and three-star classifications within the next three years. Postal firm Pos Indonesia, department store Sarinah, and airport operator Angkasa Pura I have also announced that they have set aside investment capital to build hotels.