Destinations Known | Indonesian Motorcycle Grand Prix: how island with only 23,000 rooms will fit 100,000 racing fans, the latest bump in the road for the anticipated event
- With only 18,000 hotel rooms and 5,000 in homestays on the island of Lombok, even traditional wooden boats are being drafted in as accommodation
- The racetrack is part of Indonesia’s grand Mandalika resort project, one that has encountered numerous issues including allegations of human rights abuses
“If you build it, they will come” – even if there’s nowhere for them to stay.
The origin of the maxim is generally considered to be the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, in which farmer Ray, the character played by Kevin Costner, hears a mysterious voice while he’s out in a cornfield. “If you build it, he will come,” says the voice, the “it” being the baseball field in the middle of nowhere our protagonist has been dreaming of constructing and the “he” a long-dead baseball player Ray idolises.
Lombok’s “baseball field” is the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit, a racetrack that opened in November 2021 in the Mandalika resort area of the Indonesian island.
Although next month’s Indonesian Motorcycle Grand Prix (MotoGP) won’t be the first event staged on the new track (that honour went to the Asia Talent Cup, in November), it is set to the busiest, with the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry projecting that as many as 100,000 fans – from Indonesia and abroad – will converge on Mandalika for the three days of racing, beginning on March 18.
Unfortunately, though, there are only 23,000 guest rooms on Lombok, in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), according to an article by Coconuts Bali: 18,000 in hotels and 5,000 in homestays or tourist villages.
