Heaptalk, Jakarta — The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy is organizing the national event named Indonesia Adventure Race (IAR) on December 1-3, 2023 in Pangandaran Regency, West Java.
The Indonesia Adventure Race is a sports competition packaged in a natural adventure concept with terrain that displays the stunning natural panorama of Pangandaran. The competition consists of running, cycling, rowing, and tracking.
“For natural tourism lovers, you can take part in this competition and at the same time explore extraordinary tourist destinations such as Pangandaran which is included as one of the National Tourism Strategic Areas (KSPN) in West Java,” said the Deputy for Tourism Products and Activity Organizers of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy Vinsensius Jemadu in The Weekly Brief with Sandi Uno at the Sapta Pesona Building, Jakarta (11/06).
On this occasion, Vinsensius appreciated the Mountain and Jungle Explorer Association (Wanadri) for initiating this event. According to him, the Indonesia Adventure Race is in line with the efforts of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy in developing sports tourism events in Indonesia. “Hopefully, this event can bring in crowds and have a tremendous economic impact, especially in attracting domestic and foreign tourists,” said Vinsensius.
Building an adventure race ecosystem in Indonesia
Meanwhile, the Chief Executive of the Indonesia Adventure Race Ilham Gumilang said that IAR was motivated by the desire to build an adventure race ecosystem in Indonesia. According to him, neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Brunei Darussalam started the adventure race ecosystem in the early 2000s. He said, “Therefore, our target at the start is introduction and interest first.”
Ilham further explained that the IAR participants are a team with five members consisting of 1 manager/support and 4 athletes. There are two competition categories, namely fun adventure and extreme adventure.
The fun adventure starts with running for 5 km, then cycling for 43 km, rowing/running for 1.5 km, followed by cycling for 17 km, and running/tracking for 8 km. Meanwhile, the extreme adventure starts with running for 12 km, then cycling for 158 km, rowing/running for 3 km, cycling for 8.5 km, and running/tracking for 18 km. (Translated by Sinta)
