PHRI: Stop issuing licenses for hotel construction

INDUSTRI PERHOTELAN - JAKARTA. The Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) has called on the government to stop issuing licenses for hotel construction because currently the country has a surplus of hotel rooms.

The association said there are 2,300 start-rate hotels with 290,000 rooms across the country.

“I think we need a moratorium. Several regions like Bali, Yogyakarta and Bandung, already have too many hotels,” said PHRI chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani in Jakarta on Monday as reported by tribunnews.com.

He called on property developers to stop constructing new hotels to help increase the occupancy rate of the existing hotels and to prevent further oversupply in hospitality businesses.

He questioned the many new proposals from businesspeople to develop new hotels, while existing hotels were struggling to increase occupancy.

“Why would they want to develop new hotels if they know they would face difficulty,” asked Hariyadi, who is also chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo).