The Regional Secretary of the West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Government, Lalu Gita Ariadi, revealed that as of February 20, 2022, the number of Mandalika MotoGP tickets that had been sold was 21,530. That number is still relatively small considering the target is 60 thousand. His party made various efforts to increase ticket sales, especially to people in West Nusa Tenggara.
“Assuming the population of Lombok Island is 3.5 million, one percent of the 35,000 is expected to be able to witness this MotoGP event,” said Lalu Gita Ariadi in an online press conference, Tuesday (1/3).
Ariadi explained that as many as 35,000 tickets were distributed through 10 clusters. Mobilization of ticket sales is also carried out through regional agencies, BUMN, banking and professional associations.
“Then the ranks of the NTB Police Chief, the Resort Police Chief and his partners asked for 2,000 tickets to be sold, then the Danrem, Danlanal, NTB Danlanud and their partners as many as 2,000 tickets,” said Lalu Gita Ariadi.
The ticket sales strategy by the NTB Provincial Government is carried out by providing a 10 percent discount before tax to people with NTB ID cards, and limiting hotel rates in the province.
“The selling price of hotel rooms is the highest at the epicenter of the activity where we tolerate up to three times the normal price that applies and of course we will monitor hotels in NTB,” said Gita Ariadi.
Land and Sea Transportation Support
Director General of Land Transportation, Ministry of Transportation, Budi Setiyadi said that his party is preparing 278 buses to optimize the use of public transportation modes to the Mandalika area from transportation nodes. Including from Gilimas port, Lembar Harbor, Bangsal Port, Kayangan Port, Mataram City Center. In addition, his party has prepared 184 units of medium-sized buses as shuttle which serves seven routes within the Mandalika area.
“So we have two things to prepare. The first is for intermodal transportation, the next is available shuttle who enter from the last place to the location where the audience will take their seats,” explained Budi Setiyadi at the same press conference.
The provision of this public transportation mode is expected to prevent congestion to the Mandalika circuit location, and limit the use of private vehicles and motorbikes.
Budi Setiyadi revealed that MotoGP spectators coming from outside the island with the Padangbai Port route to Lembar Harbor and the Kayangan – Pototano route will be served by 53 Ferry ships that can carry a maximum of 21,545 passengers and 2,203 vehicles per day. For the Padangbai – Lembar route, nine fast boats will be available with a passenger carrying capacity of 2,400 people per day.
For the Surabaya – Lembar route, the authorities will operate three vessels with a capacity of 1,214 people and 155 vehicles per day, while for the Ketapang – Lembar route, the authorities will deploy six ferries that can carry 1,125 people and 102 vehicles per day.
Anticipate COVID-19
The Deputy for Tourism Products and Activities of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Rizki Handayani Mustafa, said the target audience for the 2020 MotoGP was decided to be 60,000 people to anticipate the spread of COVID-19. Previously, the government projected the number of spectators at 100 thousand people.
“We also remember that we still need to be aware of this COVID omicron even though the trend has decreased, but we still need to be vigilant,” said Rizki Handayani.
He explained that the 2022 MotoGP event has encouraged the acceleration of infrastructure development in NTB which is expected to provide economic benefits for the local community, as well as support the government’s efforts to make the area an international tourist destination. [yl/ab]