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s the school holiday season approaches, recreational sites have prepared special programs to attract holiday makers in Greater Jakarta.

Amusement park Dunia Fantasi (Dufan) in Ancol, North Jakarta, has new attractions for families.

'During the holiday weeks from June 15 to July 7, visitors can enjoy the 'International Soccer and Crazy Motor Show' in Dufan, in which visitors will enjoy seeing freestyle soccer attractions performed by players from France and a stunt motorcycle show,' Taman Impian Jaya Ancol amusement park director of recreation unit Winarto told The Jakarta Post.

He added that visitors could also enjoy City Zoo park in Ancol, in which they could interact with some unique animals under the supervision of staff at the park.

'The visitors now can also enjoy free Wi-Fi in Ancol and they can reserve tickets online to avoid long queuing at ticket booths,' Winarto said, adding that the management aimed to attract 2.2 million visitors during the holidays.

Another tourist attraction, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in East Jakarta, offers a wide
range of programs to not only lure Jakartans, but also people from outside the capital to the city for a holiday.

'Our focus in this school holiday is to give a direct cultural experience to our visitors through interactive programs. We will hold a traditional games festival and a drawing competition located in Desa Seni [art village] in Taman Mini,' TMII operation director Ade F. Meyliala told the Post.

She said that the festival would comprise dozens of traditional games that were rarely played nowadays, such as gasing (spin tops), engrang (racing on walking stilts), sepak takraw (kick volleyball), congklak (mancala-based board game) and bekel (western jacks).

'There will also be traditional dance performances in Desa Seni. Visitors can join the dances and take pictures with the dancers or even try on the traditional clothing displayed if they want,' she added.

The winning pictures from the drawing competition would be put on display at Taman Mini gallery.

According to Ade, TMII aims to attract 400,000 visitors during the three weeks of school holidays, the same number it achieved during last year's holidays.

Meanwhile, Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta, which is home to more than 3,000 wild animals from 260 species, offers visitors elephant, horse and camel rides.

'We usually hold this animal riding program on the weekends, but special for this season, visitors will be able to trek around the zoo on elephants, horses and camels every day,' said the zoo's spokesperson Wahyudi Bambang.

He added that the zoo also had a new family member, a Bengali tiger that was born last January, in the Schmutzer Primate Center.

Twenty-five-year-old Hasliani Hamzah, a mother of one, from Serpong in South Tangerang, Banten, has decided not to leave town during the holidays.

'I was planning to go to Bali but I cancelled it. After browsing on the Internet, I found out that there were still many interesting places for holidaying in Jakarta.

'I won't leave town and will spend the holidays visiting some tourist attractions in the city with my husband and child,' she told the Post. (hrl)