Will Hold A World Class Marathon, DKI Regional Government Invites Jakarta Residents To Live Healthyly

BTN Jakarta International Marathon (JAKIM) 2024 will take place on Sunday, June 23, 2024. (Doc. Ist)

JAKARTA The world-class marathon event, namely the 2024 Jakarta International Marathon BTN (JAKIM) will take place on Sunday, June 23, 2024. This event is the result of the collaboration between the Jakarta Regional Government and PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk (BTN) which is considered to make Jakarta residents healthier by echoing running sports and at the same time establishing the identity of Jakarta as a metropolitan city that encourages sports-based tourism.

Not many cities in Indonesia are able to achieve this status, especially with recognition from the international community. Based on the definition of UN Tourism, the UN agency that houses world tourism, sports tourism is a type of tourism activity that provides experience in exercising or watching sports competitions for tourists who come somewhere.

The world agency noted that sports tourism accounts for around 10% of tourism spending globally, with growth estimated at 17.5% in the range of 2023 to 2030 in line with tourist movements within and between continents. Broadly speaking, sports tourism can have a positive impact on social, economic and environmental conditions around, and trigger development and leave a legacy that is timeless.

The Jakarta Provincial Government has promoted Jakarta as a city that has encouraged sports tourism since several years ago, including the Jakarta Sports Week campaign, to attract more tourists from abroad and domestically. This time, by holding the 2024 JAKIM BTN, Jakarta wants to become a city that is still known to the world, even though it will later relinquish its status as the state capital after being taken over by the capital city of the archipelago (IKN) in East Kalimantan.

"One of the activities is so that the city of Jakarta can still be known to the world, so we must carry out international activities, one of which is the JAKIM," said Acting Governor of DKI Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono in Jakarta recently.

BTN JAKIM 2024 is one of the world-class marathon running events and is recognized by the world athletic body, namely World Athletics. This event was held by the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government to celebrate the 497th Anniversary (HUT) of the city of Jakarta, with the main sponsor, namely PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk.

A total of 15,000 runners both from within and outside the country are expected to participate in the 2024 JAKIM BTN, which will take up three categories, namely Marathon (42,195K), Half Marathon (21,0975K), and 10K. Meanwhile, the total prize prepared in this event is around Rp. 3 billion, including a grand prize for a house for participants who managed to break a marathon record, specifically for Indonesian citizens (WNI).

Heru said, by encouraging Jakarta as a city of sports tourism, economic growth will not only occur in Jakarta, but also in Indonesia. This is in line with the central government's hope that Jakarta will become a special city as a center for business and economic growth known internationally, after leaving its status as the capital of the country.

The seriousness of the Jakarta Provincial Government can also be seen from the research efforts carried out before implementing the 2024 JAKIM BTN. Heru said, to make the JAKIM 2024 BTN event a success, his party conducted comparative studies to several countries that had successfully held international standard marathon activities such as the Tokyo Marathon. Like international running events in many countries, the Jakarta Provincial Government decided to sterilize the roads traversed by BTN JAKIM 2024 participants from motorized vehicles.

"We hope that the implementation of the 2024 JAKIM BTN can be in the same class as the marathon activities that have been carried out by other big cities in foreign countries such as the Tokyo Marathon," said Heru.