State-Owned Enterprise Holding (Tourism and its Supporters), PT Aviasi Wisata Indonesia (Persero) or InJourney will again present the F1Powerboat international motorboat racing event on March 2-3, 2024,on Lake Toba. The hope is that F1Powerboat 2024 will have an even greater double impact considering that last year it had an economic impact of up to IDR 1.68 trillion. F1Powerboat 2024 on Lake Toba is planned to be held in Balige, Toba Regency, North Sumatra. A total of 18 international racers from around 10 countries will take part in F1Powerboat on Lake Toba. In order to enliven F1Powerboat, InJourney will present a side event that is no less lively. This time, InJourney will present the Solu Bolon competition between North Sumatra districts and also the First Aquabike Indonesian Championship Series competition which will be attended by approximately 30 Indonesian jetski athletes. Apart from that, the side event will also present a cultural and MSME festival from February 29 to March 3, 2024.
“We are collaborating with all parties to jointly encourage the potential of Lake Toba as one of the 5 Super Priority Tourism Destinations (SPTDs) which continues to be recognized on the international stage. One of the efforts to encourage the tourism sector in Lake Toba is to make it a water sport tourism, ” said the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan in a statement to InJourney, Thursday (8/2/2024).
He added that holding international scale events is a motor and catalyst for the region in carrying out promotions so that in the end it will create an extraordinary multiplier effect for the economic growth of the surrounding community.
“We are grateful that by holding two international events on Lake Toba, namely the F1Powerboat and Aquabike Jetski World Championship, the name of Lake Toba has come back to life. The extraordinary exposure has made Lake Toba included in the New York Times list of must-visit destinations,” added Luhut.
Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, said that the Government had made massive investments in 5 SPTDs, so sustainable events were needed to continue to increase tourist traffic.
“The presence of the F1Powerboat event has been proven to stimulate the community’s economy and has also become a forum for MSME players to develop their businesses to become bigger. We hope that this year’s F1Powerboat can have a bigger economic impact than last year,” said Sandiaga.
Sandiaga added that in 2023 the number of foreign tourist visits to Indonesia will increase to 11.7 million. This increase is also supported by interesting and high-quality events, one of which is F1Powerboat.
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Dito Ariotedjo, expressed his pride in the enthusiasm of residents around Lake Toba at previous international events, especially the 2023 Aquabike Jetski World Championship which was able to attract up to 200,000 visitors. This shows the potential for water sports tourism in Indonesia to become a special attraction for the community.
Last year, through the Aquabike Jetski World Championship 2023, Indonesia successfully hosted the international jetski championship. This success was recognized by the Founder of H2O Racing Management, Nicolo Di San Germano, who said that Lake Toba is the best venue in the world as a jetski racing location because of the beauty, splendor and charm of Lake Toba. This year’s F1Powerboat event will also be enlivened by the first Aquabike Indonesian Championship series. In this event, 2 categories will be held, namely endurance and parallel slalom. Around 20 national racers will take part in this event. This opportunity will open up opportunities for athletes to improve their best performance in the next Aquabike World Championship on Lake Toba.
February 8, 2024, detikFinance
(https://finance.detik.com/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/d-7183147/f1powerboat-digelar-2-3-maret-2024-di-danau-toba-ini-dampaknya-ke-ekonomi)