Business slow at botanical gardens

BOGOR (JP): This year's Christmas has recorded the lowest number of visitors to the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

The park's supervisor, Enday, said, "If it's compared with past years, the number of visitors this year is very small.

"There could be 30,000 visitors on past Christmas days."

He said the reason for such a great decrease in visitors was because this year's Christmas fell during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadhan.

"Since the first day of Ramadhan on Dec. 9, there has been a drastic decrease of visitors here, either on Sundays or working days," he said.

"There were 1,500 visitors at the most on any given day during Ramadhan."

Enday said most visitors to the gardens took the opportunity not only to refresh themselves, but also to have meals with relatives or friends.

"Many of the visitors, who are non-Muslims or are not fasting, opted not to visit here during Ramadhan," he said.

Slow business was also experienced by public transportation drivers and owners here.

A public minivan driver serving the Bantar Kemang-Ramayana route said: "Business is slow today. Probably because today is not only a weekend, but also a holiday and part of the Ramadhan fasting month."

"Earlier in the morning was worse as I had only two passengers in the first two trips," he added.

He said he decided to operate his minivan on Saturday as he did not want to stay at home doing nothing.

Similarly, a public minivan driver serving the Pasar Anyar- Salabenda route complained of few passengers on Christmas.

"Probably as it has been raining since the morning many people were reluctant to go out of their houses," he said. (24/imn)