Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – General Manager (GM) of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Handy Heryudhitiawan, opened his voice regarding severe traffic jams and accumulation of tourists in the airport area during the Christmas and New Year (Nataru) holidays.
It is known that some time ago a video went viral on social media showing severe traffic jams on the Bali Mandara Toll Road towards I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport on Friday (29/12/2023). In the video, a number of foreign tourists can be seen getting out of the car and walking along the toll road carrying suitcases to beat the traffic jam.
Handy said that one of the factors that triggers traffic jams in the airport area is the accumulation of the number of potential passengers and vehicles entering and exiting the airport area.
“On December 29, Bali passengers were 70,776 people in one day with the number of vehicles entering and leaving the airport approximately 41 thousand,” said Handy in Weekly Brief with Sandi Uno in Jakarta, Wednesday (3/1/2024).
In his report, Handy said that this number was actually still lower than December 23 2023. On the second day of Christmas, the number of passengers was 75,240 people and the number of vehicles entering and exiting I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport was 57,937.
“Actually, we have tried as much as possible. In terms of total resources, we have used all of our resources to regulate the flow of vehicles entering and leaving the airport,” explained Handy.
Apart from the I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport area, Handy revealed that accumulation of tourists also occurred on Jalan Bypass Ngurah Rai, Jalan Kediri and Jalan Raya Kuta.
Furthermore, Handy said that although the amount of data produced on December 29 was lower than December 23, the accumulation occurred due to a number of things, such as high mobility of vehicles from outside Bali and mature or good days according to Hindus.
“Indeed, there has been quite a high increase in the volume of cars in Bali, yes. This holiday, many cars from outside Bali entered Bali and carried out activities on the 29th,” explained Handy.
“Apart from that, in Balinese terms there is a good (adult) day on the 29th, so there are many activities carried out by Balinese people, such as weddings,” he added.
Apart from that, Handy also highlighted the strategic location of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport and close to tourist destinations in southern Bali.
“This airport is surrounded by tourist attractions, such as to the north there is Seminyak, to the south there is Jimbaran and Uluwatu, then to the east there is Benoa,” explained Handy.
On the same occasion, the Head of the Bali Province Tourism Service (Kadispar), Tjok Bagus Pemayun, said that by the end of 2023, the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali would be 5,328,238 people. Meanwhile, the number of foreign tourists visiting was 9,877,911 people.
“The visit of foreign tourists and foreign tourists was beyond our expectations. It was extraordinary,” said Tjok Bagus on the same occasion.
“Yesterday's experience, yesterday's traffic jam, is certainly a lesson for us so that this year hopefully it won't happen again,” he added.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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