Gabriel, 9, enthusiastically walked around the rooms and browsed the collections of the Museum Listrik dan Energi Baru (MLEB), the Electricity and New Energy Museum, at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in East Jakarta.

He, together with his younger brother and a cousin, pressed several buttons to get information about collections.

Gabriel, a fourth-grader at an elementary school in Surabaya, East Java, said that the visit was his second to the museum.

'€œI like to see the machines and how they work. That'€™s why I have come again this holiday,'€ he told The Jakarta Post, adding that he could learn about electricity and electrical machinery in the museum.

Interactive displays and various machinery collections attracted visitors to the MLEB, one of the most visited museums in the TMII, MLEB assistant marketing coordinator Sukarnoto said.

As many as 12 museums are located on the 15-hectare TMII area together with pavilions from all provinces in Indonesia and various meeting and recreation facilities.

Sukarnoto said on Monday that the museum, which booked around 150,000 visitors last year, was aiming to have 200,000 visitors this year.

'€œWe are closely competing with the Science Center and the Transportation Museum,'€ he said, naming the other two most visited museums in the TMII.

Sitting on an area of 2 hectares with a total building size of 1 hectare, the museum provided interactive and technology-based collections, which caused many visitors to repeat their visits, said Sukarnoto, adding that the museum had outdoor and indoor display spaces.

'€œIn the building, for example, is sitting our iconic ion chair, where visitors can sit and feel nothing. However, when they shake hands with their friends, their friends will be mildly electrocuted,'€ he said, adding that the chair attracted mostly young visitors.

'€œWe also have an Indonesian-made electric car prototype that can be driven by visitors,'€ he said.

The five-seater car can travel up to 135 kilometers with a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour on fully charged batteries. Charging takes four to five hours. Visitors can drive the car, which uses a 50 horsepower 900-cc engine, on a 1-kilometer-long track.

Sukarnoto said that to attract more visitors, the museum also offered meeting and homestay rooms with fees ranging from around Rp 300,000 (US$22.50) to Rp 2 million per night.

'€œWe provide a kids corner, hold events and even invite schools to hold their events in our place and use our meeting and homestay rooms,'€ he said.

Like the electricity museum, other museums in Jakarta nowadays work closely with communities to boost visits.

The National Museum in Central Jakarta, for example, promotes its space as a venue for community events.

The museum head, Intan Mardiana, said recently that community events would automatically attract visitors to the museum.

The National Museum, which welcomed 235,000 visitors in 2008, is aiming to receive from 255,500 to 365,000 visitors this year and 1 million visitors in 2017, according to government data. (prm)

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