Borobudur 2000 night canceled

Borobudur 2000 night canceled

YOGYAKARTA: Millennium Night Borobudur, the once-in-a-lifetime
celebration to be held in Borobudur Buddhist temple on Jan. 31,
was canceled on Thursday due to poor ticket sales to foreign
tourists.

Chairman of the event's committee Bagus Baliantoro said out of
the 142 tourists who had booked seats for the performance, only
35 had confirmed them.

"It's impossible for us to go on with the plan without enough
spectators," Bagus said, adding that some of the tourists who had
confirmed had yet to pay for their tickets costing US$199.

The committee had set a target of 250 visitors.

Bagus said the committee had already incurred huge financial
losses in advertisement expenses since October. It was forced to
lower the initial price of $247 to lure as many tourists as
possible.

Bagus speculated that many foreigners were reluctant to visit
Indonesia due to security concerns.

"The most important thing now is to restore the country's
tarnished image so we can regain foreign tourists' confidence,"
he said. (swa/edt)