G

ood intentions went awry for the inaugural KAI Travel Fair, which was held on Saturday and Sunday at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) in Senayan.

What was supposed to be a customer-luring event turned into a chaotic festival that became dangerous for minors and elderly visitors due to lack of preparation from the event’s initiator, state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI).

The company held the fair to release 642,000 discounted tickets for executive trains to various destinations with departure dates between Aug. 7 and Oct. 31.

“Through this event, we wanted people who usually take economy-class trains to experience the executive class,” PT KAI spokesman Agus Komarudin said on Sunday.

“[The number of people visiting the fair] was beyond our expectation […] This has been a lesson for us.”

Agus went on to apologize to the visitors, saying that it was the first time the company had organized such an event.

On its first day, the fair attracted thousands of people who queued for their tickets since early morning.

By late morning, the lines had extended to Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, causing congestion as the queues spilled over onto the road.

Meanwhile, at the front of the lines, visitors pushed and yelled at each other to get inside the exhibition hall, forcing security officers to remove children and elderly people from the building.

The chaos brought on a stern reprimand from State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno, who had opened the event.

She admonished the organizing committee for not anticipating the high number of visitors.

Taking charge of the situation, Rini allowed queuing visitors to enter an empty room next to the exhibition hall.

She also instructed PT KAI officials to waive the entrance fee, which was set at Rp 10,000 (75 US cents) per person.

“We apologize to visitors for the long queue. We did not expect the enthusiasm to be this high,” Rini said on Saturday at the event.

“This is [KAI’s] first travel fair. We have never had this before.”

In addition to the disorganized queueing system, visitors were further disappointed to discover that tickets sold at PT KAI’s booth were being offered at 10 and 25 percent discounts, instead of the 75 percent sale that had been advertised.

The 75 percent discount was, instead being offered by Traveloka, a travel site that is also PT KAI’s marketing partner.

In the exhibition hall, Traveloka required visitors to buy the cheaper tickets through its mobile application by using the hall’s Wi-Fi connection — a system that confused most elderly visitors.

“We were told to come here to get cheap tickets, but they say we can buy the tickets online,” said Budi Senjaya, 75, adding that he could not use a mobile phone.

“I am disappointed. I feel like I am being deceived.”

Meanwhile, Stella Snell, 32, a visitor from Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, went home empty-handed.

“To ensure I got the tickets, I called PT KAI many times yesterday [Friday]. I learned the terms and conditions, but I could not even get into the hall,” she said.

“This is unfair. They are not prepared for this.”

Because of Saturday’s disorder, the fair’s committee changed its selling system on Sunday, allowing customers to buy discounted tickets through either the Traveloka application and PT KAI’s application, called KAI Access.

By Sunday afternoon, only 25 percent of the discounted tickets had been sold, according to PT KAI, which serves 100,000 passengers daily with 333 trips to various destinations in Java.