Powerboat F1 Event Can Restore Tourism Economy

Secretary of the Deputy for Tourism and Creative Economy Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rustam Effendi. (Photo: Doc. ANTARA)

MEDAN - Secretary to the Deputy for Tourism and Creative Economy Coordination of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Rustam Effendi stated that the F1 Powerboat international championship event in Balige, Toba Regency, North Sumatra, could restore the tourism economy.

"Our tourism has not fully recovered until 2023, various parameters have not reached the number before COVID-19," Rustam said as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, March 1.

He said, although currently the recovery has begun to increase from year to year, even the number of tourists has exceeded 2019, namely 749 million domestic tourist trips.

"Or this can be said, from the national target even though the achievement is already high, only 62.4 percent of the 2023 target is 1.2 billion tourist trips," said Rustam.

For this reason, according to him, this is a joint task in raising the target of domestic tourist travel. One of them, said Rustam, is through the activation of the implementation of regional, national and international championships.

"The Toba Lake has F1 Powerboats and Aquabike, while if Mandalika has Moto GP and Superbike, MICE Labuhan Bajo, Borobudur have religious destinations and others," he said.

Rustam said the 2023 F1 Powerboat performance had an economic impact of IDR 391 billion, in just one week.

"Of course we hope that among international events F1 Powerboat and Aquabike, local governments can initiate the implementation of championships even though it has not been nationally or internationally scaled because it has a big impact on the economy," he said.

Although making a large-scale event, according to Rustam, there must be collaboration, commitment and hard work in the implementation of both the central and regional levels.