Jakarta. The road to the 2024 elections may become a boon for the hotel industry as political parties hold countless meetings to prepare for the presidential race, according to commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Indonesia.

“There are many 2024 election preparations that the property industry can take advantage of. For instance, meetings held by the government circles and political parties, which will positively contribute to the hotel industry,” Cushman & Wakefield Indonesia strategic consulting director Arief Rahardjo told a virtual presser on Monday.

“Historically, elections do not have that big of an impact on the property sector. But the 2024 elections will be different because the presidential and local polls take place in the same year,” Arief said.

Cushman & Wakefield reported that business trips done by free and independent travelers and corporate meetings had lowered the hotel vacancy rate in Jakarta from 63 percent in 2021 to 52 percent this year. Arief said the meetings on the elections could help drive down the hotel vacancy rate.

“2023 is quite an interesting year. We will get to see if the economic recovery will continue until next year. It will also be a window, a chance for developers to market and launch new products before the 2024 elections,” Arief added.

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According to Cushman & Wakefield, hotel room supply totaled 42,500 rooms as of the end of 2022, marking a 1.6 percent year-over-year growth. About 42 percent of these rooms come from four-star hotels. As the holiday season is approaching fast, the average room rate ranges from Rp 400,700 (about $25) for a one-night stay in a three-star hotel to around Rp 1.9 million per night for luxury hotels.

“We will have 600 new hotel rooms [in Jakarta] next year. However, this is still much lower than the 2,400 new hotel rooms in the pre-pandemic 2019,” Arief said.

Cushman & Wakefield data showed that hotels would add on average 1,700 new rooms every year for the past decade.

The presidential and legislative elections will take place on Feb. 14, 2024. Indonesians will cast their votes for their local leaders on Nov. 27, 2024. Last week, the General Election Commission (KPU) announced the 17 political parties that qualify for the upcoming election, including nine incumbents with seats in the House of Representatives and eight challengers.

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