Number of ship passengers up

The head of Tanjung Priok harbor passenger terminal, Tukiman, said here yesterday that he expects an increase in the number of travelers passing through the harbor in the coming weeks due to the start of the school holidays.

He said large numbers of people have gone through the terminal this past week.

"In the past three days alone about 5,734 people have arrived through Tanjung Priok while the number of people leaving has reached 3,927," said Tukiman, adding that this signified that more people are spending their holidays in Jakarta.

As reported by Antara, Tukiman expects the peak of the holiday season travel to occur in the first week of July.

The number of seasonal travelers leaving and departing through Tanjung Priok harbor has traditionally jumped during the holiday season to numbers equaling or even surpassing those during the Islamic Idul Fitri holidays.

Tukiman revealed that for the past two years the peak travel season has been July and August with some 80,000 people commuting in a single month. (mds)