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Thousands of members of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party will gather in June at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Mega Kuningan that was the target last year of a terrorist attack by Islamic extremists.

But the decision to hold the national congress of the party known as the PKS from June 16 to 20 at the hotel located in the exclusive business and residential area of South Jakarta was not based on a symbolic attempt to show good relations between the Western-owned hotel chain and Muslims, but rather on pragmatism.

“We picked the Ritz-Carlton because it is cheap,” PKS spokesperson Ahmad Mabruri told the Jakarta Globe on Thursday.

“We have compared the costs with other hotels and it is much cheaper and able to accommodate 2,700 people.”

He did not, however, want to elaborate on how much the party would spend for the five-star lodgings nor comment on whether the affordable prices were a result of the bomb attack in July.

He did comment that the expenses would be shouldered by PKS lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council.

On July 17, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and the nearby JW Marriot Hotel were bombed just a few minutes apart.

The twin attacks, which ended a five-year lull in terrorist attacks in the country, killed nine people — including the two suicide bombers, Dani Dwi Permana, 18, and Nana Ichwan Maulana, 28 — and wounded more than 50.

The blasts led to the cancellation of the visit of English football club Manchester United, which had been scheduled to play in Jakarta on July 20.

But tourism officials said the occupancy rates of several hotels throughout the country and the number of foreign tourists visiting the country were largely unaffected by the attacks.