Indonesian Hotels Rank 1st for Perceived Business Outlook: TripAdvisor

Indonesian hotels top the global charts for optimism about their businesses, travel website TripAdvisor said on Tuesday, citing results from a biannual global survey.

In the latest TripAdvisor Industry Index, Indonesia ranked first of 22 countries for hotels with the best perceived business outlooks, while Greece ranked last, according to respondents’ answers to questions gauging the perceived health of their businesses.

Brazil ranked second, followed by Russia, the United States and India.

The survey was based on responses from a random sample of accommodation owners and managers in June. It generated more than 25,000 responses worldwide, including more than 300 in Indonesia.

In Indonesia, 44 percent of accommodations said they were “extremely or very profitable” during the last six months, the highest rate in the survey, TripAdvisor said in a statement on Tuesday.

Larger hotels, defined as those with more than 50 rooms, were more likely to say they had been profitable, the survey showed.

Indonesia also ranked second behind Thailand for hoteliers planning to increase their staff sizes. Thirty percent of hotels in the archipelago said they planned to hire more people, the survey showed, compared to 31 percent in Thailand.

“In comparison, hoteliers in Japan (20%), New Zealand (9%) and Australia (8%) trail behind,” TripAdvisor said in the statement.

In the Asia-Pacific region more generally, TripAdvisor said business outlook for hotels had improved slightly, with 50 percent of respondents in the region saying they expected the economy to improve, compared to 48 percent in December 2011.(Jakarta Globe)