REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA =- Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said two proposals have come up to meet the demand for accommodation facilities as Indonesia strives to expand its tourism sector.

According to him, the State Owned Enterprises (SOE) Minister, Rini Soemarno, has proposed creating a floating hotel and introducing the concept of homestays.

"Our country is a large archipelago with 222 tourist destinations. The idea of Minister Rini is to create a floating hotel to accommodate them quickly," he said at an event to launch the Hotel Indonesia Group here on Wednesday.

According to Arief, with hundreds of existing destinations, it takes a lot of time to build supporting facilities such as an airport or a port to ensure accessibility.

"Later, a transport company such as Pelni could also get in. There will be no need to buy new ships because partnerships will be immensely possible," he added.

The second proposal, he pointed out, is to build homestays for overland travel, a concept that can be very suitable for Indonesia.

Arief opined that it takes about five years to build 220 hotels with a capacity of 2,000 rooms. The calculation was based on the maximum capacity of hotels that averaged 100 rooms.

The idea of a homestay will also help meet the housing needs of the people as the country still lacks 7 million units.

The management can later use the concept of sharing through digital platforms, like AirBnB.

"Building a million homestays, I think, is not difficult. It can be managed digitally like AirBnB, and is an economical concept best suited for the people of Indonesia," he stressed.

SOE Minister Rini Soemarno said the proposal came up because Indonesia has many beautiful tourist destinations but lacks access to these and is short of accommodation facilities.

"There are beautiful places but the access is not good. Also, the supporting facilities are not available. Our target is to ensure that by the end of next year, the proposal can be realized," she concluded.

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