Museum anticipates more visitors

Tue, 10/28/2008 10:23 AM  |  City

JAKARTA: Managers at the Jakarta History Museum expect a 75 percent increase in visitors this year compared to last after a successful weekend event at the historic institution.

"Since the revitalization of Old Town last year, we have seen more visitors," head of the museum's exhibition and education division Rucky Nellyta said to tempointeraktif.com on Monday.

In 2007, the museum in North Jakarta received 78,000 visitors, but already by September this year had recorded 90,000 visits.

The museum, known as the Fatahillah Museum, has held many events in the past to encourage visitors to the historic center, Rucky said.

"The strategy was devised because there had been no addition to the museum's collection, and rearranging the displays would be too difficult because we don't have the storage room."

Batavia Art Festival, an event held last Saturday in the museum, proved a great success. Despite the heavy rain, more than 1,000 visitors from all ages came to the one-day event.

Old Town manager Candrian Attahiyyat said most of the visitors still lacked knowledge about the history of the city.

"We will continue to introduce Old Town and its history with these kind of events," he said. -- JP

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.