Pass data from node.js to .ejs js script variable

I must be overlooking something but I don’t manage to get a variable from node.js to pass on into a js script object/variable in .ejs.

I have a route:

app.get('/simulation', (req, res) => {
  console.log("simulation results route requested");
  hotels = [
    {
      hotel: 'Hotel Tevini ****superior'
    }
  ];
  console.dir(priceTravelers, {depth:null});
  res.render('simulation/simulation', {jsonData: hotels});
});

And I want that data to be parsed in to a variable in the .ejs file.
I have tried

const data = <%= jsonData %>;

in the .ejs but that does not seem to work.

Any thoughts?

I tried several things like data = JSON.parse(<%= jsonData %>);.
Stringify the data on render to send first and then parse on the .ejs side but that gives [object][object] back etc.