TheJakartaPost
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Anti-Ahok rally hits Jakarta hotel occupancy rates
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Streets packed, hotels not: Protesters gather on thoroughfares near the National Monument square on Friday in a rally to demand the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama for alleged blasphemy. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
T
he occupancy rates of Jakarta's hotels have slumped this week as guests postpone or cancel their plans to stay in the capital because of security concerns regarding a large gathering on Friday to demand the arrest of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama for alleged blasphemy.
Jakarta Hotels Association (JHA) chairman Alexander Nayoan told The Jakarta Post that the Jakarta-wide occupancy rates for five-star hotels had fallen by between 10 and 15 percent this week.
“The decrease in occupancy rates was already significant even before today, especially for hotels with many foreign guests,” said Alexander, who is also the managing director of The Dharmawangsa Jakarta.
He added that the four-star and three-star hotels, which mostly cater to local guests, had also seen a 5 percent drop in occupancy rates compared to in normal weeks.
“Many business meetings hosted by foreign companies were cancelled. However, some events organized by local companies are still going on,” he said.
The large rally, however, has not made an impact on hotel occupancy rates outside Jakarta, state-owned Hotel Indonesia Natour (HIN) president director Iswandi Said told the Post.
“There is no impact [by the mass gathering of protestors] making a decline of hotel occupancy rates in other cities outside Jakarta,” he said.
More than 200,000 demonstrators are expected to swarm the National Monument (Monas) square in Central Jakarta on Friday to demand the immediate arrest of Ahok. (win/hwa)
