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)