Dafam Hotel Management is setting sights on expansion outside Indonesia as its parent company Dafam Property readies to go public later this week.
Andhy Irawan, managing director of Dafam Hotel Management, said: “Within seven years of operation, we have 23 hotels in 16 cities in Indonesia with a total of 2,301 rooms and some in the pipeline.”
As the company continues to expand in Indonesia, it also harbours international ambitions, targeting an overseas management portfolio of 100 hotels by 2025 in total, in Indonesia and overseas.
Headquartered in Semarang, Central Java, Dafam Hotel Management has won a contract for seven properties in Mecca and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in addition to receiving an offer to either invest in or manage a hotel in New Delhi. The company is also considering Singapore and Malaysia for expansion.
Andhy remarked that Dafam’s key to winning the hotel management in Saudi Arabia was their experience in managing Syariah hotels in Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan and Yogyakarta.
“Olayan (Group Hotels) initially signed a contract with us for its 500-room Mecca property and as we are in the process of taking the management, they entrusted us with six others with a total of around 4,000 rooms in Mecca and Jeddah,” he shared.
“We see a lot of potential (demand) from the Indonesian market to some of these (locations), and this is a lucrative customer target for us,” he said.
In the meantime, Dafam Property will be listed at the Indonesia Stock Exchange on April 27, releasing 25 per cent of its share to the public.
The board of directors of Dafam Property – whose business covers commercial and residential property, hotel development and management, as well as restaurant, catering and entertainment businesses – are confident the time is right for the company to go public.
Billy Dahlan, president director of Dafam Property, explained: “Indonesia’s tourism potential is high, the hotel industry has been growing significantly in the last few years and most importantly, the government’s infrastructure development programmes across the country has impacted directly on hotel business (in those areas).”
UNESCO has designated about half of Satun province as Thailand’s first Global Geopark for its renowned natural beauty and geological significance.
Satun UNESCO Global Geopark is located in the Satun province of southern Thailand, comprising four districts (Thungwa, La-ngu, Manang, and part of Mueang Satun) including two national parks and one wildlife sanctuary. Altitudes reach up to 732m, with mountains and foothills characterising the eastern and northern areas, while beaches and coastal islands dominate the Andaman Sea part of the Geopark.
The UNESCO website describes the Satun Geopark area as “a peaceful place with renowned natural beauty”, renowned for its abundance and high diversity of fossil species as well as for the oldest succession of fossils.
Prasat Hin Panyod, characterised by a spectacular pinnacle karst landscape, including a stunning sea cave and hidden lagoon that can be visited by kayak, is singled out as the most important geosite.
Yuthasak Supasorn, Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) governer, said in a statement: “UNESCO designation is a great honour that can only help ensure sustainable tourism growth, which the TAT feels is definitely something worth supporting and celebrating.”
In total, the UNESCO executive board in Paris endorsed 13 new sites worldwide as new UNESCO Global Geoparks, eight of which are in Asia including Cao Bang (Vietnam), Izu Peninsula (Japan) and Rinjani Lombok (Indonesia).
The full list can be found here.