BALI: Tune Hotels.com plans to add 24 new budget hotels in Indonesia by 2015, including Jakarta, Medan and Bandung, to capture a pie of the republic's lucrative tourism market.
Group chief executive Mark Lankester said the new hotels are part of the no-frills hotel operator's plan to open 100 hotels all over Asia in the next five years, in line with its shareholders' plan to open one budget hotel at every city that budget airline AirAsia flies to.
Tune Hotels.com's shareholders include Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes of AirAsia.
"We will invest an average of RM15 million for each hotel in Asia, depending on the number of rooms," Lankester told reporters at the opening of TuneHotels Legian, its second hotel in Indonesia, here yesterday.
In the first quarter of next year, the hotel chain will invest RM50 million to buy land in Jakarta, Medan, Bandung as well as the UK, Phnom Penh, Melbourne and Perth.
"It takes up to 12 months from buying land right up to building the hotel," said Lankester.
He said the company also has received enquiries to start up operations in Japan, the Middle East, France, India and is looking for land in Singapore.
Tune Hotels.com signed an agreement with Thailand's Evolution Capital Public Co Ltd last Saturday to jointly open 44 hotels across Asia with an investment of US$200 million (US$1 = RM3.44).
The 44 hotels are part of its plan to open 100 hotels across Asia, of which five are already operating in Malaysia.
By Business Times (by Zaidi Isham Ismail)
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