JAKARTA (indo.com): Despite the lingering hardship felt in some circles affected by the ongoing economic crisis, hotels and tourism spots in Jakarta are seeing a sharp hike in the number of families wishing to spend their holidays in the city.

"One week before the school holidays (which started on October 21, 2000), most hotels close to tourism spots in Jakarta are fully booked, especially on Saturdays and Sundays," Hotel Raddin's Public Relation Manager Idris was quoted by Kompas daily as saying recently.

Other hotels that are seeing an increasing number of guests include the Novotel Bogor Corelia, with 180 rooms sold, and another in the Ancol Dreamland estate, with 303 rooms booked.

Idris said there was always a hike in the number of guests when the school holidays arrived but "this year's rise is higher that the previous years'. This may indicate the improving economic condition."

The school holidays is also a harvest season for a number of travel bureaus, with many of them opening their operations on Sundays due to the drastic hike in holiday requests.

Dwidaya Worldwide Tour & Travel, for instance, saw its tourism packages all being sold out for the upcoming weeklong tours. "Usually, the package tours are fully booked one week in advance," Devi, an employee at Dwidaya, said.

She said that Yogyakarta was the most favored tourism destination for domestic travel. "For overseas tourism destination, many have booked Singapore," she added. A number of travel bureaus have jointly offered "Tour Center 2001" package to Europe, China, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.

Yogyakarta to hold Tourism Week 2000

JAKARTA (indo.com): Yogyakarta will hold a Tourism Week 2000 in a bid to boost tourism awareness to the community. The 12th event will start on October 27 and will run to November 1, 2000.

Supriyanto, head of Yogyakarta's Tourism Office, said that the event was expected to boost local tourism potentials.

He cited the increasingly tight competition in tourism promotion efforts by tourism offices in Indonesia. "More and more Tourism Designated Sites in Indonesia actively promote themselves," he was quoted by Antara News Agency as saying.

The Tourism Week was also expected to attract more foreign tourists to visit the city, he added.

Programs at the coming festival include an exhibition on visual tourism potentials, tourism service businesses, tourism-supporting industry, seminars on tourism and art shows. A number of tourism offices are expected to take part in the Yogyakarta Tourism Week.