Seribu Islands get fewer tourists

JAKARTA: The number of local and foreign tourists visiting Kepulauan Seribu, or the Thousand Islands, continues to decline due to lingering security concerns and the battered economy, an executive said on Tuesday.

The chairman of the Kepulauan Seribu's tourist association, Didin Djunaedi, attributed the fall in the number of foreign tourists to heightened political concerns and the string of bombings across Indonesia over the past two years.

"The decline in the number of local tourists is because of the cost of accommodation and transportation in the wake of the fuel price increases that occur almost every year," Didin said.

Tourist visits to the regency peaked in 1995 with 143,722 visitors. That number fell to 133,219 in 1996 and 105,683 in 1997.

In 1998, the year of the reform movement, the number plunged to 81,125 visitors. The average number of visitors over the five years up to 2002 was less than 15,000.--Antara