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ne of the country’s largest shuttle service and car rental companies, Cipaganti, will expand into the hotel, apartment and tour businesses in order to tap into the growing tourist industry in Indonesia.

Cipaganti Group marketing communication head, Astri Prikasih Aditya, said in Jakarta on Friday that through the group’s property division, Cipaganti Inti Development, the company planned to build 11 hotels across Indonesia and an apartment building in Bandung, West Java, by the end of 2015.

In addition, the company has started selling both domestic and international tour packages as well as airline tickets.

“Tourism demands are becoming stronger in the country due to economic growth. Therefore, we decided to enter the property and tour businesses because we want to be an integrated travel and tour company to better serve our customers,” Astri told The Jakarta Post.

She said that this year alone, the company was set to finish the construction of the Cipaganti Legian Hotel in Bali and the Cipaganti Hills Apartment in Cipaku, Bandung.

The construction of both the three-star diamond hotel with 129 rooms and the 98-unit apartment started at the end of June.

“Legian Hotel and Cipaganti Hills are situated in strategic locations, giving clients easy and fast access to top tourist attractions such as Kuta Beach, Seminyak Square, Dago factory outlets and fashion area Cihampelas,” she said.

She declined to disclose the amount of investment the company spent on building the hotel, but said the apartment cost Rp 40 billion (US$4.2 million) to construct. She also said one-third or 32 of the apartments had been sold.

After the Bali hotel is finished, the company will commence construction on De Art Hotel Cipaganti and Batik Hotel in Bandung; Pangandaran Beach Hotel in Pangandaran, West Java; Cipaganti Tanjung Hotel in Tanjung, South Kalimantan; and Cipaganti Hotel & Apartment Sepinggan in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.

They will all be three-star hotels and are scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.

“We are going to build a five-star hotel and a resort in 2014 and 2015. We will announce their locations in the near future,” she said.

In the tourism field, the company not only offers city tours in Bandung, Pulau Umang and Denpasar but also in major Southeast Asian cities, such as Singapore, Penang and Bangkok.

In the near future, Cipaganti plans to offer travel services to and tours in Australia, she said.

The company started as a small car rental company back in 1991 called Cipaganti Car Rental.

Today, the group has five divisions focusing on tourist buses, taxis, shuttle services, car rentals, tour packages, air ticketing, property, heavy equipment, mining and banking spread through several provinces in the country.