ER
MANY may not know that Archipelago International, Southeast Asia’s largest privately owned and independent hospitality management group, has more than 40,000 rooms and is located in more than 60 destinations across Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, Middle East and Oceania.
According to John Flood, President and CEO of Archipelago International, met during the doorstop opening of the Archipelago Mini Soccer or futsal competition, Monday, (02/06), 2023 at Alana Sentul said that along with the development of Archipelago International, previously known as Aston International, is one of the leading hotel operators in Indonesia with a portfolio now has more than 160 hotels and 40,000 rooms and more than 80 properties.
“Along with its development, Archipelago International also spread its wings to grow from a leader in Indonesia with an impressive portfolio to a major global player by opening its first hotels in Latin America and the Middle East. Today, Archipelago International is ranked the 38th largest hotel group in the world,” he said.
Thanks to John Flood’s sound analytical skills, innovative thinking and inspiring leadership, Archipelago International has grown into Indonesia’s largest hotel group with an impressive portfolio of more than 15,000 local employees.
“Archipelago operates 11 brands including ASTON, Collection by ASTON, Alana, Huxley, Kamuela, Harper, Quest, Hotel NEO, fave, Nordic and Powered by ARCHIPELAGO, offering a choice between luxury villas with private pools to apartments and select service economy class hotels. Archipelago International’s vision is “to be universally recognized as the preferred hospitality management company in Asia-Pacific,” said John Flood who moved to Indonesia 23 years ago, where he has served as Group President & CEO since 2009.
I remembered, he explained when Archipelago’s first hotel was in Saudi Arabia, a market it views as one of the most important in its continued expansion internationally that in strategic terms this is an historic agreement for our company and indeed for Indonesia, as we will be the first Indonesian based hotel company to enter the Kingdom’s hotel market. Our hotel brands are the most widely recognized in Indonesia, which is the largest source market for pilgrims to Makkah and Madinah.
In accordance with Archipelago International’s mission, he continued, “we are a hospitality management company managing hotels, resorts, serviced apartments and villas in Asia-Pacific”. There are several stages of activities that contribute to the success of the entire Archipelago International management organization. These activities are key to the success and management philosophy of Archipelago International.
But when talked about in this 2023 conditions such as global recession, Indonesian political year, he directly answered that three countries, namely the United States, China, and European countries as the locomotive of the world economy have been mapped to face a recession so that their economies slow down. The threat of recession is expected to affect a number of countries that become Indonesia’s foreign tourist market.
“But Indonesian government has adjusted the focus of the foreign tourist market to countries that are large markets, which currently show an extraordinary increase in the number of tourist visits to Indonesia, namely India, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Malaysia and Singapore which are still growing,” he noted.
He emphasized that but don’t forget with the domestic tourist market which has also been potential as the backbone of the tourism industry but must continue to be addressed in terms of services. I also believe that Indonesia’s economic prospects remain bright along with an increase in performance after easing activities, although the threat of a 2023 recession.
“But for the political year, the hotelier industry has the potential to experience good development, because many political parties are holding activities in hotels. I’m not worried, the political year is not a wait and see year but a year of hotel development opportunities. This may be our opportunity to convey that politics is actually good for the hotel industry and tourism because there are definitely a lot of activities in hotels,” he remarked.
He also hopes that a number of political events will be held in hotels and invite legislative candidates to hold events at these locations. John Flood also assessed that Indonesia’s current political era has completely changed, in which the era of divisive politics has been left behind by the younger generation, millennials have started to leave behind unhappy politics. So, according to him, politics should be fun, and there’s no reason to be worried.
Finally, when he asked about his desire to sell the company’s assets to other investors, John Flood just smiled and said that “I will let you know if there is such an intention, but until now Archipelago International has not thought about selling this company because there are several stages of activities that contribute to the success of the entire Archipelago International management organization and these activities are the key to success for the company,” he concluded. [traveltext.id/photo special]
