Hilton Worldwide, a US-based global hotel chain, has steadily been expanding its operations in Indonesia to tap new market opportunities in a hospitality industry that is thriving on the back of steady economic growth and the free visas being offered to the citizens of most of the countries in the world.
“We already have four properties under our management and eight others, which are under construction in Jakarta, Tangerang, Surabaya and Bali, will open within the next two years”, Hilton’s vice president for Southeast Asia and India William Costley told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
The four properties already in operation are the Double Tree by Hilton in Jakarta, the Hilton in Bandung, the Conrad and the Hilton Garden Inn, both in Bali.
Hilton, which manages more than 4,600 properties in 103 countries, is also looking for new opportunities in Lombok, Medan in North Sumatra, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and Palembang in South Sumatra, Costley said.
It is mostly a matter of finding the right partner for promoting Hilton service standards because Hilton has many brands to fit in with different locations, he said.
“But we are always directly involved together with the owners in the process of designing and constructing every hotel we will manage and in training its human resources,” he added.
Costley said the steady growth of Southeast Asia’s largest economy and the ASEAN open skies policy would boost business travel and the whole hospitality industry in many other cities across the vast archipelago.
“We are quite excited about the prospect of the tourism industry, especially after the launching of the visa-free facility,” he said. “And I think the target of 20 million tourist arrivals in 2020 is not impossible.”
He sees great potential for developing Indonesia into one of the most favorite tourist destinations and tourism is also the right kind of industry Indonesia needs because of its labor intensive, multiplier impact and, most importantly, this industry is friendly to the environment and earns a lot of foreign currency.
“Take for example this Double Tree by Hilton hotel here, which has 253 rooms. It employs only two expatriates and the rest of the staff are locals,” Costley pointed out.
Hilton Worldwide has a portfolio of 13 brands, including the Waldorf Astoria, the Conrad, the Hilton, the Double Tree by Hilton and the Hotel Garden Inn, which are promoted as landmark properties in Indonesia.
Costley said the Waldorf Astoria, Hilton’s most luxury brand, which will be housed in a 74-story mixed-use building currently under construction on Jl. MH Thamrin in Jakarta, will open in 2018 with 181 rooms.
Two other properties under construction in Ubud and Seminyak, both in Bali, will operate within the next two years and are also under the Waldorf Astoria brand, while the Hilton Bali (formerly the Grand Nikko) will operate later this year with 408 rooms, he added.
The other four hotels in Hilton’s management portfolio that will open within the next two years are the Double Tree by Hilton in Surabaya and Karawaci in Tangerang and the Hilton Garden Inn in Kemang, Jakarta, and Karawaci.
Costley said the Hilton group is strongly committed to strengthening and expanding its growing portfolio of landmark properties in such key destinations as Indonesia.
Our Hilton Honors loyalty program has 55 million members around the world, and this huge data bank is surely an effective means of promoting Indonesia globally,” Costley added.