“An intriguing country with a great diversity of culture, scenery and resources”
TOURISTS ENJOY A BEAUTIFUL DESTINATION WITH FIRST-CLASS FACILITIES AND A HUGE RANGE OF ACTIVITIES FROM GOLF TO JUNGLE TREKKING

The number of foreign tourists to Indonesia is steadily rising, a sure sign that the country is putting behind it the economic trials of the late 1990s and the setbacks which followed September 11th. In May there were 362,300 foreign tourists, more than 10 percent up on the previous month.

The total number of foreign visitors for the first five months of the year was 1.68 million and, although this is very slightly down from the same period in 2001, the tourism authorities are predicting a bumper year as the European, US and other nations’ vacation seasons get under way. The forecast for 2002 is 5.8 million foreign tourists, a big increase on the 4.2 million last year.

THE LUXURIOUS Dharmawangsa Hotel is located in Jakarta’s most prestigious residential area.

Bali, which has long enjoyed its status as a vacation paradise, continues to be a favorite destination. Nearly 550,000 tourists visited the island in the first five months of this year.
Many of the lesser-known islands in the Indonesian archipelago are also attracting growing numbers of eco-tourists and adventure tourists, while many others head off to beach resorts on some of the most beautiful coastlines on the planet. Specialist tours for wildlife-watchers and jungle-trekkers are well-organized, while sports enthusiasts, from golfers to scuba divers, are discovering just how much the country has to offer.

As Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, it attracted a large amount of attention following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. However, Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri was quick to dispel any fears that her people supported terrorism and she was the first head of state from
a Muslim country to visit the U.S. after September 11th.
Her message is that Indonesia is a safe place for a vacation, and this is underlined by Ralph Boyce, the US ambassador to Indonesia. He told a recent audience in New York that the country was a secure place, both for US investment and for tourists.

LUIS FERNANDES Managing Director of the Dharmawangsa Hotel

The majority of guests at the sumptuous Dharmawangsa Hotel in the capital Jakarta are Americans, mostly businessmen. Luis Fernandes, the hotel’s managing director, has great faith in the future of Indonesia.
“In the last few years, Indonesia has been unfairly battered by many negative press reports,” he says. “I have been here for more than four years and it is a fact that one’s perspective of a country is very different when seen from within it.
“Indonesians are a warm and friendly people and Indonesia is an intriguing country with a great diversity of culture, scenery and resources. From an industry point of view, I believe that Indonesia offers immense opportunities and will play a huge role in the world’s economy in the future. Not only is Indonesia one of the biggest markets in the world, it is also effectively the powerhouse of South East Asia after China.”

TRANQUILLITY can be found only ten minutes away from the capital’s central business district.

The Dharmawangsa, which opened in time for the OPEC conference in 1997, is a luxurious hotel in the heart of Kebayoran Baru, the most prestigious
residential district of Jakarta, only ten minutes away from the central business district. Owned by Indonesians, it is managed by Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which runs 14 properties in five continents, including The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, The Lanesborough in London and Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico.

The hotel, which has 64 rooms and 36 suites, is distinctively Indonesian in design, reflecting the country’s history and culture. Each of the rooms is decorated in regional styles, using traditional and original materials from Java, Pesisiran (North Java), Bali, South Sumatra and East Indonesia. “We actually bought a wooden house in Sumatra, dismantled it and brought it to Jakarta, and we have used parts of the house throughout the hotel,” says Mr. Fernandes.

THE DHARMAWANGSA is decorated in regional styles, using traditional materials.

The name of the hotel comes from an 11th century king of East Java, Dharmawangsa, who is credited with laying the foundations of what became the kingdom of Majapahit and the Golden Age of Java. Regarded as the Javanese equivalent of the Byzantine era, the kingdom gave rise to an era of dazzling art. It was during this era that the world’s largest Buddhist monument was created.
The Surya (or sun) is a recurring theme in the hotel, symbolizing the 14th century empire of Majapahit, which pioneered Indonesia’s philosophy of ‘bhinneka tunggal ika’ (strength in unity). This philosophy was a key theme in the unification of the Indonesian archipelago.
The Dharmawangsa is exceptional in many ways, not least that it has no reception desk. Instead, every guest has a personal butler to check them in (female guests can have a female butler) and “makes sure everything happens as the guest desires.”

Over on Bali, the exclusive Begawan Giri Estate is probably the most luxurious on the island. There are five villas, each with its own swimming pool, scattered throughout 20 acres of beautiful grounds and water gardens.
Begawan, ten miles from Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali, was opened as a retreat by its British owner Bradley Gardner and his wife in 1998. “It was always going to be a private estate, not a hotel,” says Mr. Gardner. “To me it’s the experience that I want people to take away when they leave here.”