L

ocal residents in a number of regions are eager to welcome the advent of the total solar eclipse on March 9 because they are expecting to make extra income with the arrival of foreign and domestic tourists who want to closely observe the rare natural phenomenon.

In Sigi regency, Central Sulawesi, 38-year-old Intan was busy on Sunday cleaning up a guest room in her three-bedroom house at Ngatabaru subdistrict. She plans to rent it out to incoming travelers.

Ngatabaru, located 10 kilometers south of the provincial capital of Palu, will host a series of events from March 7 to March 11 to welcome the total solar eclipse.

Hundreds of foreigners are expected to gather in a 6,000 square-meter tourist village and enjoy various programs including cultural performances and rave parties.

Intan said she was planning to charge her guest Rp 250,000 (US$18.7) per night, including meals.

'€œOur guests can eat what we eat at home,'€ she told The Jakarta Post.

Mangge Jidi, another villager, has also managed to make additional income for the past two months as a construction worker building bamboo structures for the tourist village.

The 36-year-old man said he and dozens of other villagers each received Rp 75,000 per day for their services.

'€œMany villagers who have no permanent job are happy to take this job,'€ he said.

Unlike a partial solar eclipse, a total eclipse can usually only be seen from a particular spot on Earth once every few decades.

The phenomenon occurs when the moon travels between the sun and the earth and casts the darkest part of its shadow, the umbra, over the earth.

Astronomers have predicted that this year'€™s solar eclipse will fall on March 9, with Indonesia the only country in the world from which the phenomenon will be visible.

Dozens of cities across 11 Indonesian provinces, including those in West Sumatra, Central Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Bangka-Belitung, East Kalimantan and North Maluku, have been identified as areas that will experience the short-lived yet breathtaking occurrence.

In Central Sulawesi, the provincial administration claims that more than 3,000 visitors from 12 countries, including the US, UK, Canada and China, plan to arrive in the region early next month in the hope of observing the solar eclipse.

The shortest total eclipse will be visible on South Pagai island, West Sumatra, and will last for one minute and 54 seconds, while the longest, which will last for three minutes and 17 seconds, will occur in Maba, a small town in East Halmahera regency, North Maluku.

Many foreign tourists have selected regions in Central Sulawesi from which to observe the total solar eclipse because certain areas within the province offer a relatively long eclipse duration of two minutes and 20 seconds and are more accessible than Maba.

In North Maluku, the Ternate municipal administration has been working to improve the appearance of local markets and transportation to the venues.

'€œTourists will definitely visit local markets to taste our local culinary dishes and other specialties. That'€™s why we must make our markets clean and comfortable,'€ Mayor Burhan Abdurahman said on Sunday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Meanwhile in West Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands regional administration is also offering various events, including culinary festivals and a traditional Turuk Laggai dance performance, on March 9 in an effort to lure foreign and domestic tourists.

The events will take place at Silabu subdistrict in North Pagai Island, which will become the first Indonesian region to experience the total solar eclipse at 7:20 a.m. local time on March 9.

Mentawai Islands Tourism Agency head Desti Seminora said dozens of foreign tourists had signed up to attend the events.

'€œBut, we are expecting to see more domestic tourists at the events,'€ Desti said.

Since independence, Indonesia has experienced 18 partial solar eclipses and nine total solar eclipses. It has also experienced six annular solar eclipses.

A partial solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks only part of the sun'€™s disk, while an annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is a new moon or too far away, and is subsequently too small to completely cover the sun.