Tour de Singkarak has become one of the icons of West Sumatra tourism. The iconic Tour de France in France inspired this event with the hope of being able to bring West Sumatra tourism to develop and become a specialty.
“At the beginning of 2009, this event was held for the first time only for West Sumatra. In 2019, it involved districts in Jambi Province,” said Dr. Retnaningtyas Susanti, Lecturer at the Department of Tourism, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality of Universitas Negeri Padang, Tuesday night (23/2).
Retnaningtyas, being the speaker of the Indonesian Tourism National Seminar Series from Various Perspectives #9 with the theme “Tour de Singkarak: Fading of a Hope?”, said the theme Tour de Singkarak is growing. Even this sporting event that becomes a tourist attraction in the end not only becomes an icon of West Sumatra but also connects Sumatra.
“We hope to connect all regions in Sumatra through Singkarak, but it needs a process as in West Sumatra this event still invites pros and cons from the community,” she said.
Discussing Tour de Singkarak and tourism in general, she said, means discussing sports activities as tourist attractions. There are active and passive activities. In active activities, people come and follow the event while in passive activities they come just to watch.
According to her, events like this are similar to when people come to Mentawai, especially foreign tourists only looking for big waves. That means they become active tourists. Or like the Moto GP racing in Sepang, Malaysia, for example, they don’t come to race but only watch.
“Even though the tickets for hotels, airplanes, and entrance are expensive, people will still watch because they are world-class. Related to my research on Tour de Singkarak in 2015, this reveals more about how Tour de Singkarak contributes to the quality of tourism infrastructure in West Sumatra, as well as the effectiveness of Tour de Singkarak in improving the quality of tourism objects in West Sumatra,” she explained.
She explained that the community felt the benefits of this kind of event. At least they realized that the road infrastructure and tourist attractions are getting better. Before Tour de Singkarak, the district/city government usually did road repairs and built new roads at some points.
“There were several damaged roads in West Sumatra that had not been repaired for a long time. They were chosen for Tour de Singkarak routes, so in the end, we inevitably made Public Works carry out repairs on the road,” she explained.
Tour de Singkarak has been held from 2009 to 2019. In 2020 it stopped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2021 it is planned to be held again on September 12, 2021.
Initially, this event only consisted of four stages. Now, there are nine stages. District/city participation increased from 2009 to 2015, especially in 2014, but had experienced a decline and increased again in 2017.
“This is where the topic of fading hope coming from about participation. I asked several districts/cities, especially the Tourism Office when this research was completed in 2017. It has been such a long time since Tour de Singkarak was held, that it seems that there has been no significant increase in the number of tourist visits. Although the BPS data usually shows increasing visitor numbers, the tourism office doubts whether it is because of Tour de Singkarak? That’s the question,” she said.
However, Retnaningtyas said the existence of this event still has a multiplayer effect, at least on transportation and the quality of tourism in West Sumatra. She hopes that one day Tour de Singkarak will be like the Tour de France in France.
“One of the highlights of this event is the acceleration of road construction infrastructure for Tour de Singkarak and the community enjoying the good roads. With TDS, the quality of tourism is getting better, and tourists can visit comfortably,” she said.
Source: https://ugm.ac.id/id/berita/20804-tour-de-singkarak-event-olahraga-sebagai-atraksi-wisata
