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Amy Chew

OMNI Hotels Asia Pacific has signed a 10-year agreement to manage a new 380-room hotel in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.

  Development of the property, named the Omni Batavia Hotel, is under way and it is expected to have a soft opening by mid-1995.

  The hotel is being built by the Tamara Group, a Jakarta-based conglomerate of diversified companies whose core businesses include financial services, hospitality enterprises, property development and manufacturing.

  Financing of the project will be undertaken by a syndicate of banks, with Tamara Bank as the arranger.

  The property is located in the central business district of Glodok, noted for the strong Dutch influence in the architecture and decor of its colonial buildings.

  The Indonesian Government has earmarked the district to be upgraded to become a key city tourist attraction.

  Omni Hotels Asia Pacific president Michael Kalyk said: ''The strategic location of our hotel at the centre of the Glodok district will contribute to that development and will enable our group to benefit from it.''   Tamara Group president Omar Putihrai said his company had decided to build the business hotel to support developments which were taking place in Indonesia.

  ''With new foreign investments and expansion of existing businesses, the arrivals of both business and tourist travellers have increased many-fold,'' he said.

  The hotel will offer 380 rooms and suites, including an executive floor - the Omni Continental Club - aimed at travelling executives.

  With the contract for the new property, the Omni group now has a portfolio of seven properties in Asia.

  ''The Omni Batavia Hotel is in keeping with our strategy of expansion into the primary gateway cities within the Asia-Pacific region in order to serve business and leisure travellers,'' Mr Kalyk said.

  ''The long-term management contract also reflects the strength and appeal of the Omni brand name.''   Omni vice-president, marketing Michael Hobson said the property, which would be marketed as a first-class, four-star hotel, would be targeting business travellers and traders.

  ''I believe we are the first international standard hotel in the Glodok business district,'' he said.

  He said Omni's move into Jakarta was in line with the group's strategy of acquiring properties in key Asian cities.

  Indonesia obviously has become a part of the list with its strong tourism development.

  Visitors to Indonesia are expected to rise to nine million by 2000, according to Wage Mulyono, head of Garuda Indonesia, the country's national carrier.

  Mr Wage expects visitors to travel beyond Bali, a traditional favourite destination, to other parts of the island nation.

  ''We believe there are many more Balis still to be discovered in more than 13,000 islands which make up the vast and diverse Indonesian archipelago,'' Mr Wage said.

  He named Tanah Toraja in Sulawesi and Lake Toba in Sumatra as examples of places with potential to become international attractions.

  He also said that while Australian backpackers and surfers had pioneered tourism to Bali, their numbers were being replaced by family groups as facilities and services on the island became more sophisticated.

  Bali also has in recent years become increasingly attractive to big-spending European jet-setters who have made it an alternative to the Caribbean as a holiday destination.

  He forecast that by 2000, visitors from Asia-Pacific would comprise 65 per cent of total visitors to Indonesia.

  Garuda Indonesia is working closely with the country's international tourist offices to promote locations beyond Bali to ensure that airports can cope with extra traffic and to develop, with its sister domestic airline, Merpati, connections and frequencies to link with the growing number of international flights.



New Jakarta property in Omni chain