Tourists flock to Baturraden

PURWOKERTO, Central Java: While the economic situation has become bleaker for many in the past few months, the Baturraden tourist site has registered a 50 percent increase in visitors during the recently ended school vacation period.

Head of the Baturraden tourist office Andri Sungkowo told The Jakarta Post yesterday he was surprised at the soaring number of visitors.

In the past three months, the number of visitors rose from an average of about 2,000 on weekends to about 3,000.

"In fact last weekend we had 5,000 people here," he said.

"We really never expected this, and its really a welcome surprise.

"Maybe during these times of economic crisis people need a bit of invigoration."

But while the overall number of visitors rose, the number of foreign tourists declined.

Andri said prior to May there were about 400 foreign visitors per month, but the number now only ranks in the dozens.

"In July, we only recorded 28 foreign tourists," he said. (45)