| Damai Puri Resort and Spa gets first customers Damai Puri Resort & Spa gets first customers KUCHING: Damai Puri Resort & Spa welcomes its first customers today. It targets a modest occupancy rate of 65 to 67 per cent for its first year of operation. General manager Fritz J Klug said yesterday he expected Malaysians to make up the bulk of customers initially, though the resort was also banking on the Chinese and Korean market. “We expect that by next Chinese New Year, these two groups of customers would have picked up,” the general manager told The Borneo Post. Presently about half the resort is fully operational - Ocean Wing with a capacity of 120 rooms while ‘Spa Village’ should be ready by next March. Overall more than RM30 million would be spent on the renovation exercise which started in March this year, Fritz said. The new management took over from Holiday Inn Damai Lagoon in January this year. The property, still under the ownership of the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation, is on a 30-year lease to Damai Puri. Fritz, an Austrian who has been in the hospitality industry for more than 30 years, said he foresaw good foreign tourist potential. The new resort and spa, he said, was more diversified in terms of in-house activities offered, while its customer base would include more tourists and corporate clients from the region. The new management is targeting families for holiday peak seasons and plans to attract conferences during other times. An upbeat Fritz enthused that there has been healthy interest from the corporate sector, starting with today’s 80 guests from Ernst & Young, Kuching branch. “A delegation of French businessman will arrive on Dec 24 and two Peninsular Malaysian companies in January and February,” Fritz added. On foreign holidaymakers, he said the resort was interested in prolonging the average stay period from two-and-a-half days to at least four-and-a-half days. “Damai Puri aims to spur the growth of foreign tourists in Kuching. There will be a lot of spin-off revenues for the downline industries. “I think Kuching’s facilities are on par with others in Malaysia. Furthermore while other places are getting saturated, Kuching is new for many people,” Fritz said. The head of resort declined to speak on projected revenue figures as it was premature. A walk-in rate of RM238++ (for Malaysians only) per standard room is now available. Guests can expect to have free wireless internet in all rooms, which also comes with a 32-inch LCD television set. The Ocean Wing, as the name suggests, faces the South China Sea. It comprises a ‘Family Fun Pool’ with three water slides. For more information, call 082-846900, fax 082-846901 or visit http://www.damaipuriresort.com/. Published by:
The Borneo Post
15 December 2007 | 
