Batam tourist mark nears 1m

BATAM, Riau: Tourist arrivals on Batam, one of the country's major gateways, have not been adversely affected by the turmoil in the last few months, with numbers for 1998 set to hit the one million mark.

Data from the Batam statistics office shows 992,226 tourists visited in the first 11 months of last year. The island lies a few kilometers south of Singapore.

The number is an increase of 3.15 percent from last year.

Singaporean tourists constitute the largest group, although their average length of stay was only one to two days.

The highest number of Singaporean arrivals occurred whenever the Singapore dollar appreciated against the rupiah. Singaporeans flocked to the special economic zone to take advantage of inexpensive products, ranging from clothing to food, Antara said.