161 firms compete for Jakarta tourism award

As many as 161 business entities will compete to win the 2014 Jakarta tourism awards, the Adikarya Wisata award, under nine categories.

The categories are accommodation, restaurant, entertainment and recreation, travel agencies, man-made attractions, tourism education, mass media as well as meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE). Jakarta Tourism Agency head Arie Budiman said at a press conference on Friday that the 161 nominees had been selected from 600 entities through administrative screening.

“The nominees will later be assessed by 23 judges from various fields in order to decide the winner of each category,” he said, adding that the announcement would be made in November next year.

The judges comprise public officials, professionals, business practitioners and tourism experts.

University of Indonesia’s Management Agency managing director Toto Pranoto said the committee members would consider several aspects to determine the winners.

“Generally, we have several main criteria — compliance to law and regulations, the implementation of an online system for their accounting and their contribution to culture and city income,” he said.

“The aspects comprise 20 percent product, 15 percent business sustainability, 25 percent services and human resources, 25 percent marketing and 15 percent business plan,” Toto said.

Dharmawangsa hotel executive chef Vindex Tengker, one of judges for the restaurant category, said the assessment would involve two visits — incognito and formal.

“For the incognito visit, we will go to the restaurant to assess the service and the food,” he said.

He added that the assessment would include service, the knowledge of the establishment’s products among the wait-staff, the taste of the food, presentation and timing of the service.

“We will also see how they handle problems,” he said.

Vindex said the formal visit would be used to listen to the presentation of the management about the business. “A good restaurant should have good management,” he said.

In the restaurant category, the nominees are divided into Indonesian fine dining, traditional Indonesian, American and European, Asian and Middle East.

Vindex said that compared to other cities in Southeast Asia, the quality of Jakarta restaurants was not up to standard.

“Sometimes, our restaurant look good physically, such as having a good interior design, but the kitchen management is a mess.” 

Vindex said some restaurants did not have adequate sanitation facilities and failed to implement the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.

Arie said the award was a form of appreciation from the city administration to tourism business practitioners who helped develop the industry and contributed to the city’s income.

“It’s just one of our rewards for the businesses. I hope it will motivate them to improve quality, thereby fueling the industry to grow robustly.” (Jakarta Post)