Despite the infamous congestion, Greater Jakarta still provides a great attraction for local tourists who see the capital city as a heaven for shopping for a wide variety of fashion apparel, including branded items that will soon enjoy a lower luxury tax.

The local tourists, with big purchasing power, usually hop from mall to mall and fill the mushrooming budget hotels and guest-houses near the city'€™s shopping centers to beat the traffic jams.

Artika Sari, 44, a banker who lives in Semarang, Central Java, said she and her mother went to Jakarta a minimum of four times in a year just to shop at the Thamrin City mall.

'€œI usually buy clothes for myself while my mom buys bags to sell to her arisan [social gathering] friends. Each time she wears one, her friends want to follow suit and she, therefore, comes again to Jakarta to buy some more. Each of us can spend around Rp 10 million [US$769] in three days,'€ she said.

She added that she always stayed at the Amaris Hotel that is attached to the mall to save traveling time.

Another regular shopper, Fandi, 32, said he came to Jakarta about five times a year for leisure. Unlike Artika and her mom, the businessman who hails from Makassar, South Sulawesi, would spend his time exploring various shopping places in the capital city.

'€œNowadays, there are more and more shopping centers in Jakarta. We love to shop in the Mall Kelapa Gading, ITC Mangga Dua [North Jakarta] and Grand Indonesia [Central Jakarta],'€ he said, adding that he usually bought stuff for his family.

Fendi said he and his five friends also stayed at a budget hotel in Bekasi, West Java, which was located near shopping centers such as the Metropolitan Mall and Bekasi Square.

He said they could dig Rp 15 million from their pockets in three days while shopping at the malls.

Vendors at Thamrin City said tourists from outside Jakarta flocked to the place every day.

Umar, the owner of Umang Batik Boutique in Thamrin City, said he sold batik dresses and shirts from Pekalongan, Central Java, for Rp 150,000 to Rp 6 million apiece.

'€œPeople from various towns come every day to shop. Some of our big customers come from Banjarmasin [South Kalimantan], Makassar, Padang [West Sumatra], Palembang [South Sumatra] and Bandar Lampung,'€ he said.

Reflis Amra, the owner of the Shela Collection, a Muslim apparel shop at the PGC Cililitan shopping center in East Jakarta, said groups of civil servants from various provinces often came on weekends to buy his products.

Seeing the high demand of frequent travelers with shopping needs, budget hotel investors are competing to open hotels attached to or near shopping centers.

The assistant marketing communications manager of Santika Hotels, Hinggi Safaranti, said the Amaris Hotel Thamrin City saw 62 percent of its guests coming from big cities such as Makassar, Palembang, Medan and Surabaya. '€œOur guests always spend time shopping at the mall underneath the hotel and in nearby malls,'€ she said. (rbk)

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