Park visitors down over bird flu scare

JAKARTA: The bird park at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) saw a decline in visitors in the past month following Ragunan Zoo's closure last month due to avian influenza.

The bird park's general affairs manager Endang Budi Utami was quoted by Antara as saying on Monday that visitor numbers had dropped by as much as 80 percent.

Usually the bird park receives about 400 visitors on weekdays and 1,500 visitors on weekends, but during the past month visitors dropped to 320 people on weekdays and 1,200 on weekends, he said.

"The bird flu at Ragunan has also badly effected TMII's bird park," Endang said, adding that if the situation continued the park's operational maintenance could be affected.

The bird park has been declared free of bird flu, and visitors should not be afraid to visit, he said. --JP