Good business just around the corner

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With house keepers, babysitters and security guards all part of the city's so-called mass exodus, wealthier Jakartan families are busily planning contingency strategies.

Booking a room in one of the city's many hotels is a popular solution.

Hotel operators see the Idul Fitri period as less lucrative than other times of the year. However, local families make up for some lost profit.

"We have what we call low periods - times when our occupancy rate is lower than normal. As a business-oriented hotel, a low period we usually face besides weekends is during the Idul Fitri holiday," the marketing manager of West Jakarta's Menara Peninsula hotel, Hendra Surip, said.

He said on regular days, around 75 percent of the four-star hotel's 387 rooms were occupied. Yet during low periods such as Idul Fitri, the occupancy rate stood at around 50 percent.

A similar story is told by staff members at the Borobudur, Sari Pan Pacific and Sahid Jaya hotels in Central Jakarta, whose occupancy rates during the Idul Fitri period are expected to drop by between 30 and 45 percent.

However, due to "attractive" Idul Fitri packages, the Mulia Senayan hotel is already 84 percent booked for the Idul Fitri period, communications manager Adeza Hamzah told the Jakarta Post.

He said most of the hotel's Idul Fitri bookings had been made by Jakartan families.

"We set the price of Rp 1.5 million (approximately US$165) for a two-night stay in one of our Mulia Splendor rooms during the holiday. Normally we rent these rooms out for Rp 1.1 million per night," he said.

Menara Peninsula hotel offers similar discount room packages during the Idul Fitri period, while the Sahid Jaya and Borobudur hotels try to lure domestic guests by offering family packages.

"We offer laundry discounts and tickets to Water Boom at Pantai Indah Kapuk (North Jakarta)," Sahid Jaya hotel's public relations officer Megasari Rustianty said.

The city's recreational parks are also expected to see a dramatic increase in visitors during the Idul Fitri period.

Wahyudi Bambang Priantoro, a promotional officer at Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, said Wednesday visitor numbers during the first two days of Idul Fitri were expected to climb 30 percent from last year.

"We are optimistic the number of visitors this year will reach around one million due to various activities promoting the zoo's main attraction - the Schmutcher Primate Center," he said.

The primate center is the only one of its type in Southeast Asia.

A greater understanding of bird flu within the community is also expected to attract more visitors to the zoo this year, Wahyudi said.

"In 2005, visitor numbers plunged to 300,000 from 800,000 in 2004 due to a fear of bird flu," Wahyudi said.

Bambang said keeping zoo entrance tickets affordable to the wider public also helped attract visitors.

"We think the target we have set is realistic and will not be affected by the city's current economic situation because our tickets are very cheap," he said.

"We only charge Rp 4,300 for adults and Rp 3,300 for children. To enter the primate center all visitors pay another Rp 5,000."

He said a new busway corridor running past the zoo was also expected to increase visitor numbers based on last year's figures. (11/12)