As Jambuluwuk Hotels and Resorts expands to new locations in Indonesia, the homegrown, family-owned company will continue to target international and longhaul travellers while intensifying outreach to offline wholesalers.
Currently owning and operating five properties in Yogyakarta, Bali, Puncak (West Java, off Jakarta), Batu (Malang, East Java) and Gili Trawangan (Lombok) with a total of 557 rooms, the group will launch a hotel in Jakarta this year and Garut (West Java) in 2019.
Arcs House, the owning company, is also planning to expand Jambuluwuk’s footprint to Labuan Bajo (Komodo), Ubud and Bandung.
“The government is (developing) 10 New Bali’s and we have surveyed some of them, including Morotai, which we find beautiful. But it will probably take some time before we can come in,” Jambuluwuk’s vice president marketing Mella Purwanaika told TTG Asia, adding that emerging tourist destinations are preferred due to the group’s leisure focus.
The company’s existing Bali, Yogyakarta and Gili Trawangan properties are popular with European markets – especially Germany and the UK – and Australia.
Mella has also observed good growth of the Indian market to Bali. “(We get) the majority of this market through OTAs and as we add properties, we would also like to work with brick-and-mortar wholesalers,” she said.
Jambuluwuk has in the last couple of years been actively participating at travel marts such as ITB Berlin, ITB Asia and ATF to flag the hotel brand to the wholesalers.
“We have also appointed Asia Reps Munchen as our marketing representative, and we are planning to appoint one for India soon,” she added.
Mella shared that Jambuluwuk-managed properties are positioned like “gathering resorts”, targeting families, friend groups and business events.
To serve these segments, the bungalows at Jambuluwuk Puncak Resort, for example, have three and four bedrooms. Meawhile the Jambuluwuk Oceano Resort Gili Trawangan features family rooms with double, triple and quadruple beds, as well as a playgound, which will soon be upgraded to include indoor classes, day care and nursery.
All properties in Jambuluwuk’s portfolio have meeting facilities, while Jambuluwuk Convention Hall & Resort Batu also features outdoor activities such as ATVs and flying fox.
On whether the hotel group would enter the business hotel category, Mella said: “We do have that plan, but we will only manage properties, not build our own.”
