According to a comprehensive report by sports network platform Liga.Tennis, Indonesia is experiencing a significant boom in racquet sports, driven by rising popularity of padel and pickleball alongside established tennis (Photo: Liga.Tennis)
🎾 How many people do you know who play racquet sports these days?
👔 Your co-workers playing padel.
📠Your friends playing pickleball.
📸 And your Instagram feed seems to be full of people playing tennis.
🔥 Is it becoming a fitness trend? Totally.
Just look at the head-to-toe match fits 👟, the colourful rackets 🎾, and the professionally taken photos 📷.
😅 Even finding an empty court can sometimes be the hard part.
📈 All of this points to one thing: 🇮🇩 Indonesia's racquet sports ecosystem is growing rapidly, and with it comes a serious business opportunity.
💼 Let's talk about it.
ðŸŽ™ï¸ Hello and welcome to The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast. I'm Akasha Viandri.
🌠This is where we slow down the headlines and make sense of the stories shaping Southeast Asia. ðŸ§
🎾 Tennis has been around for as long as most of us can remember.
But when it comes to the recent boom in racquet sports, 🎾 padel and 📠pickleball are leading the way.
🙌 While tennis can be difficult to pick up, padel and pickleball are generally more beginner-friendly, making them accessible and easier to learn for people who have never played racquet sports before.
🆠Of course, that doesn't mean becoming a pro is easy.
ðŸ™ï¸ Another reason is that they require less court space, making them particularly suitable for dense urban environments.
📈 Nowadays, the way people approach sports is changing.
💪 People still do it for a healthier body, of course.
🤠But they also do it for the connections.
👋 To meet people.
😊 To socialise.
📵 And frankly, as an excuse to get off their phones and spend time with other people.
✨ Racquet sports seem to offer exactly that.
📊 And the demand is significant.
According to Liga.Tennis, racquet sports facilities in 🇮🇩 Indonesia were, on average, 70 percent occupied in 2025.
🎾 Among the four sports tracked, tennis recorded the highest occupancy rate, followed closely by padel and pickleball. Meanwhile, squash had the lowest.
🙌 And if you're between the ages of 21 and 40, well, thank you.
Because around 61 percent of all racquet sports participants in Indonesia come from this age group.
📱ðŸ¤âœ¨ They're digitally connected, socially active, and increasingly willing to spend money on wellness and experiences.
🚀 These are the people driving the boom.
🎾 Let's take padel's growth as an example.
ðŸï¸ Bali is believed to be where padel was first introduced in Indonesia, brought by expatriate communities living on the island during the Covid-19 pandemic.
✈ï¸ðŸš« Travel restrictions prevented many of them from returning home, so to combat boredom, they built Bali's first padel courts.
😄 And then you know what happened next.
ðŸ—ï¸ðŸŽ¾ You can now find padel courts, or at least soon-to-open ones, in major cities across Indonesia.
🤯 And here's the funny thing: 🇮🇩 Jakarta now has the highest number of padel courts in Indonesia, with ðŸï¸ Bali coming in second.
💰 And that has caught investors' attention.
And the money being spent is hard to ignore.
💸 Users spend an average of around IDR 400,000 per visit on sports activities.
ðŸ½ï¸ Plus another IDR 50,000 on food and beverages, at minimum.
🌊 So the ripple effects go far beyond the court.
📈 According to Kompas.id, the number of padel courts in Indonesia grew from just 15 in 2021 to 947 in 2025.
🚀 This year, the number is projected to surpass 2,500.
🌠According to data from the Federation Internationale de Padel, or FIP, as of May 2024, 🇮🇩 Indonesia occupies a strategic position in the global padel industry.
🆠Among 81 countries, Indonesia ranks first in Southeast Asia, sixth in Asia, and twenty-ninth in the world based on the number of registered active courts.
💼 And businesses are busy calculating the economic potential behind all of this.
🤔 Which brings us to an interesting question.
Could racquet sports become part of Indonesia's tourism offering? ✈ï¸ðŸŽ¾
Could people eventually travel here not just for the beaches ðŸï¸ and the food 🜅
but also for tournaments ðŸ†, communities ðŸ¤, and sporting experiences? 🎾
Well, Indonesia already hosts major sporting events, from marathons ðŸƒâ€â™‚ï¸ to MotoGP ðŸï¸.
So hosting an international padel tournament ðŸŒðŸŽ¾ doesn't sound so crazy after all.
🎾 You can probably see where this is going.
This is no longer just about hitting a ball back and forth.
💪â¤ï¸ It's a lifestyle.
People want to stay healthy, but they also want community, connection, and experiences. ðŸ¤ðŸŒâœ¨
And it turns out that all that sweat can generate more than just endorphins. 💦😊
💼📈 It can generate business too.
And perhaps, offer a glimpse into the future of sports tourism in 🇮🇩 Indonesia. ✈ï¸ðŸï¸ðŸŽ¾
ðŸŽ™ï¸ I'm Akasha Viandri, and this has been The Southeast Asia Desk Weekly Dispatch Podcast, where we slow down the noise and follow the region's compass. ðŸ§ðŸŒâœ¨
If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our newsletter at thesoutheastasiadesk.com, and join us again next weekend for stories to linger over, one weekend at a time.
