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s the Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations approach, people in entertainment and tourist-related businesses in the regions have started to offer various attractions.

In Bandung, West Java, some 3,000 people have since Thursday enjoyed a snow attraction at the Festival Citylink mall to feel the sensation of celebrating Christmas abroad in wintry conditions.

Held in cooperation with Snow World International, the facility has turned a 1,200 square meter room at the mall into a “snow world”, with a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius, offering visitors the opportunity to experience the sensation of snowfall.

“We see Christmas and New Year as the right moment to present snow to visitors so they can experience the feeling of celebrating abroad without even going abroad,” the mall’s public relations officer, Yeni Kurnaen, told The Jakarta Post, on Monday.

She said the facility would be available until the end of January 2012.

A similar sensation is also offered at the Bandung Supermal on Jl. Gatot Subroto through an inline skating facility, with visitors being able to have their picture taken with Santa and Barbie. “Visitors can meet the beautiful Barbie at the mall on Dec. 24 and Dec. 25,” public relations officer of the mall, Triya Filia Santi, said.

In Surakarta, Central Java, hotels and restaurants prefer to offer special prices to greet Christmas and New Year, while the local city administration is preparing for a car-free night on the eve of the New Year.

Bambang Gunadi of the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants (PHRI) Surakarta branch said that so far no drastic increases in the number of visitors had been experienced. “Usually we will experience such increases when the time is really close to the celebrations,” he said. Surakarta, he said, was home to some 100 hotels, 30 of which were star rated.

Head of Surakarta Cultural and Tourism Agency, Widdi Srihanto, said that the car-free night was deliberately chosen for the New Year celebration because the administration wanted to provide people with a clean air, noise free environment. “We will provide access roads and parking enclaves [for motorized vehicles],” he said, adding that visitors would still be able to drive to the city’s popular night culinary spot of Gladag Langen Bogan (Galabo).

Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, producers of fiber statues, grouped under the Malta Jaya fiber statue artisan cooperatives in Bantul, have been waiting for bulks of orders ahead of Christmas.

“We’ve found it a bit difficult to receive orders this year,” said the founder of the cooperatives, Tri Atmojo, adding that previously the group had always experienced an increase of up to 50 percent in orders ahead of Christmas.

Tri blamed the difficulties on tight competition in the business due to an increased amount of competitors.

Slamet Susanto contributed to this story from Yogyakarta