REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The international bike racing event, the 7th Tour de Singkarak (TDS) is ready to be held on 3 to October 11, 2015. The event will held with a distance of 1,300 kilometers and is divided into 9 stages. The overall stage will cross the 18 districts in West Sumatra.

Sapta Nirwandar as the originator of the Tour de Singkarak said, this event has been entered into the international calendar which is recognized by the Union Cyclist International (UCI) and Amaury Sport Organization (ASO).

"According to their data, we are number five with the highest number of viewers. We are under the Tour de France (France), Italy, Spain, Australia, and lastly Padang (TDS)," said Sapta Nirwandar in press conference of Tour de Singkarak (TDS) 2015 in Soesilo Soedarman Hall, Ministry of Tourism, on Friday afternoon, June 12.

Therefore, TDS event that was usually held in June moved to October to be adjusted with other international bike racing event. The event will also certainly be followed by professional riders from several countries.

"Starting from countries in Asia plus Europe and Japan," said Sapta.

West Sumatra Governor, Irwan Prayitno welcomed the TDS which be held again. He said this event gave a very positive impact for West Sumatra. It most noticeably was the traveler trust level which increased again after a decline due to the massive earthquake hit in 2009.

"But TDS which routinely held is give back trust for tourists because of the great promotion. So, people started to forget about it and come back to West Sumatra," he said.

Besides the number of tourists, he also saw high economic growth as well. It was seen from the number of hotel rooms which increased more than 2,000.

"And now there are many who want to build hotel again," he said.

The same thing was conveyed by Minister of Tourism, Arief Yahya. He said that the Event Sport Tourism have high business value, so the execution will provide an immediate impact on improving the local economy directly (direct economic and tourism).

It also produced high value media so it was very effective for branding and PR (Public Relation). Therefore, Arief said, it will give 1,000 television commercials related to the Tour de Singkarak.

"The media value was Rp 25 billion and the feedback which produced is expected more than Rp 250 billion,"said Arief.

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