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pain-based hotel chain company Meliá Hotels International expects to operate and manage at least 15 more hotels in Indonesia within the next three years to tap into the country'€™s growing tourist industry.

Meliá senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region Bernardo Cabot said in Jakarta the expansion target set for Indonesia was a half of the 30 additional hotels the company would manage in the region by 2018, highlighting the importance of Indonesia in its global operations.

He said Indonesia was the hotel chain'€™s second-largest market in the Asia and Pacific region after China. '€œWe are in negotiations for no less than 10 hotels in Indonesia,'€ he said in a press briefing on Thursday.

He said that to achieve the target, the company will aim try to open one hotel every three or four months in Indonesia for the next three years.

The new hotels would add to the 13 hotels managed by Meliá in the country, from Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Makassar, South Sulawesi to Bali.

In the next six months, the company is also slated to open six more hotels in Surabaya, Makassar, Bali, as well as Yogyakarta, he said. Cabot said that the six hotels are not part of the hotel chain'€™s target to manage 15 hotels by 2018.

Meliá operates its hotels in Indonesia under management cooperation with local companies. It operates through different brands including Gran Meliá, Sol Hotels and innside Meliá. The hotel chain also plans to add more resorts in the archipelago.

The company previously signed a deal with PT Podo Joyo Masyhur (PJM), Indonesian real estate development company, for its Meliá Ubud resort, which is now under construction. The investment for the resort is worth Rp 150 billion (US$10.48 million) and is scheduled for completion in early 2018 , PJM director N. Irena Tee said.

Cabot said that the company planned to also bring the hotel'€™s upscale brand ME by Meliá, to Jakarta with trendy concept aimed at young people, to expand its existing upscale hotel like Gran Meliá in Jakarta, which caters mostly to businesspeople.

'€œThe strategy is to be present with our brands in different places, delivering service related to the brand and the specific segment,'€ he said.

The average occupancy rate at the moment stood at around 69 percent, he said, out of the 4,000 rooms of the total hotels in Indonesia.

The company has had a long presence in Indonesia. Its first Indonesian hotel, Meliá Bali, opened in 1985, and was the company'€™s first international hotel. Its total portfolio has since risen to 377 hotels to date, throughout more than 40 countries in four continents.

The company also opened a regional office in Jakarta two years ago because of the size of its business in Indonesia, an addition to its regional office in Shanghai.

Cabot added that Indonesia'€™s sluggish economic growth would not affect the company'€™s expansion program, as it is still higher than the average growth of the countries in Europe. (fsu)