W

ith limited space available and skyrocketing land prices in Jakarta, theme park operators have started looking to areas outside the capital city to expand their amusement center businesses.

Agus Sunaryo, a director with water park operator PT Inti Composite Figlasindo Utama, predicted a decline in the construction of new theme parks in the capital city.

'€œWater parks and theme parks are tending to expand to other regions outside Jakarta due to expensive land and densely populated areas in the capital city, especially if the operators have small budgets,'€ he said during the 2014 Theme Park Expo in Jakarta on Thursday.

The two-day, business-to-business exhibition aims to introduce theme parks as a promising industry in Indonesia as the country has seen economic growth and a growing middle class population in recent years.

Agus said a small or retail operator planning to build a water park with an investment under Rp 10 billion (US$823,859) would rather choose regions outside Jakarta because of cheaper operational costs.

'€œFor instance, our company has built a 5,000-square-meter water park in Yogyakarta and the operator is charging Rp 15,000 entrance per person. It is quite crowded almost every day,'€ he said.

According to Agus, his company offered a wide price range for customers who wanted to develop a water park, starting from Rp 2 billion to Rp 125 billion, with a minimum 1 hectare of land provided by the client.

He added his company had also built a water park in Banjarnegara, a small regency on the border of West and Central Java, as requested by the local administration. The company also manufactures and supplies water park equipment to Papua and Sumatra.

Inti Composite also built a water park in Malaysia, a project that made the company confident to welcome the ASEAN single market.

'€œWe have 30 years'€™ experience in the industry, while the saturation level for the water park business will only start in around 10-15 years,'€ he said.

Turkey-based water parks and pool systems contractor Polin also aims to build a large water park in Palembang, South Sumatra, after the completion of its Bugis Water Park project in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Ozkan Ikiz, Polin district sales manager, said Indonesia was a promising market for the theme park industry thanks to its huge population and popular tourist sights, even though bureaucracy and licensing often caused construction to take longer than in neighboring countries.

Meanwhile, Peter Sanderson, project manager at the Australia-based tourist attraction design and construction company Sanderson Group International, said his company had been approached by potential clients from Indonesia to develop a number of projects.

'€œJakarta has a great population, but there are also a lot of markets and destinations within the country that are suitable for various theme parks. It is only a matter of time,'€ he said.

Sanderson Group has designed and built many popular franchise theme parks, such as Universal Studios and Disneyland, throughout Asia and Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, the company has built Mikie Funland in Berastagi, Medan, North Sumatra.

Syelly Phie, managing director of Megawatt Asia, the event organizer, echoed the opinion that more theme park and water park projects were being directed out of Jakarta, even though a prominent developer was currently planning to build a large convention center there. (gda)

'€œAt least one developer is currently planning to build a 10 hectare integrated theme park and convention center near Jakarta. However, I am not in the position to reveal further details,'€ she said.

According to Syelly, demand for water parks was currently growing compared to regular theme parks as the investment was smaller and a healthy lifestyle centered on sports was increasingly popular.

In his press statement, Achyaruddin, director for special interest and meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) at the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, said the government supported the exhibition to provide opportunities for Indonesia'€™s theme park industry and to encourage foreign investment. (gda)