OPTIMISM about the high-end tourism market has prompted Ritz-Carlton to launch a luxury 60-villa resort on Bintan, expected to be completed in late 2008. The US$65 million Ritz-Carlton Bintan resort, to be developed by PT Pacific Place Jakarta, will be at the Ria Bintan golf course at Bintan Resorts.

Bintan Resorts has seen a resurgence of interest lately, with development projects with a combined value of more than $1 billion announced in February. This is apparently on the back of much improved arrival figures - 323,600 visitors last year.

Asked why he is investing in Bintan, Pacific Place president Tan Kian told The Business Times: 'Singaporeans need Bintan like Hong Kong needs Macau.'

Mr Tan, whose company owns a string of luxury hotels in Jakarta, including the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Jakarta, expects Ritz-Carlton Bintan to achieve 70 per cent occupancy in the first three months. The mixed-development project, on a 13.2-hectare site, will have 96 pool villas. Ritz-Carlton will manage 60 of them. The other 36 will be available for private investors.

Ritz-Carlton Asia-Pacific director of sales and marketing Simon Manning said the resort's key markets are golfers, meetings and wedding couples. Apart from weekenders and side-trip visitors from Singapore, Mr Manning said the hotel also plans to market the resort as a standalone property to its global database of high-end clients.

Approval is being sought to build an airport on Bintan - something that is sorely lacking if Ritz-Carlton's rich clients are to be catered to, said Bintan Resorts Cakrawala director Frans Gianto Gunara. It will also make Bintan more accessible to regional and domestic tourists, he said.