Archipelago to add 42 hotels in 2013

Norbert Vas

Indonesian hotel operator, Archipelago International, will speed up its portfolio expansion this year, with the opening of 42 hotels.

Speaking to Travel Daily this week, Archipelago’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Norbert Vas, revealed that following a strong year of hotel signings in 2012, 2013 would see the Archipelago portfolio really start to grow in strength.

“In 2012 we signed 55 new management deals… [and] in 2013 we have scheduled 42 hotel openings,” Vas said. While he admitted that some of these planned openings might be “overly optimistic”, Vas said the “worst case scenario” would be that Archipelago launches 30 new hotels this year, with the remainder pushed into early 2014. “Since 1 January we already signed three new deals and our goal is to sign a total of 50 this year,” he added.

While growth is being experienced across all seven of Archipelago’s brands, the four-star Aston and two-star favehotel and NEO labels are seeing the fastest expansion.

“Out of the 55 deals we did last year, 13 where for Aston and Aston City and 32 for budget hotels,” Vas said.

He added that the company has a “brand new and very exiting three-star plus brand”, which will be launched in September this year. “We know it will be a game changer, but we will keep hidden from the public and our competitors until its official launch.”

The growth of Archipelago’s portfolio is being driven by the huge rise in demand from domestic Indonesian travellers. Last year Indonesians took 245 million domestics trips, up 50% compared to three years ago, while international tourism arrivals reached just nine million – a number still relatively low compared with Malaysia or Thailand. Vas noted that with the Indonesian middle classes will reach 120 million by 2016, offering a huge potential pool of travellers.

New Archipelago properties are expected to open this year in Bali, Balikpapan, Belitung, Bogor, Jakarta, Jambi, Jember, Kupang, Luwuk, Madiun, Mataram, Semarang, Solo and Surabaya, while Archipelago’s Philippine joint venture,  Filarchipelago Hospitality, will continue to expand its five-star Crimson Hotels brand.

By Mark Elliott, 8 February 2013, Friday 3:27 AM