Overseas Travel Agents Sell Bogor Botanical Gardens Tickets

Bogor, Indonesia (News Today) - To make it unnecessary for foreign tourists wishing to visit Bogor’s Botanical Gardens to queu for tickets at its entrance gate, the gardens’ management has made it possible for them to buy tickets through travel agents worldwide.

"We have made it easier for foreign visitors to purchase entrance tickets a few months before they come to the gardens. This service will practically enable them to enter the gardens without having to queue for tickets at the entrance gate," said Kapat Yuriawan, a spokesman for the gardens here Monday.

Yuriawan said the management had improved its ticket sales service for overseas tourists because the gardens were always listed as a tourist destination by travel agents in many countries. During Idul Fitri and New Year holidays, tens of thousands of local tourists flock to the garden, so that standing in a queu for tickets would really be a nuisance.

Apart from improving the ticket sales service, the gardens’ management had also taken steps to prevent visitors from being trapped in disturbances by intensifying cooperation with the police’s tourist service unit. In addition, the management was keeping the gardens safe for strolling by pruning the old trees from time to time to avoid the trees from falling during heavy rains.

Yuriawan said an average of about 2,000 overseas tourists visit the gardens every month, 40 percent of whom come from the Netherlands. The peak time for overseas visitors was the summer months from June to August every year. Local visitors numbered some 60,000 per month.

The gardens which were built by Casper George Carl Reinwardt, a German-born Dutch botanist, in 1817, currently covers 80 hectares of land in the heart of Bogor city. The gardens are host to at least 15,000 species of plants and vegetation, making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.

The gardens sit on a site where King Siliwangi of Pajajaran kingdom who reigned from 1474-1513 had created a "samida" or man-made jungle functioning as a natural reserve and seed production center.

Among the gardens’ interesting objects is a monument dedicated to Olivia Mariamme Raffles, first wife of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, British governor general (1811-1816) during the time the Dutch Indies was controlled by Great Britain. She passed away in 1841 after a sickness and Raffles decided to place the monument there. The monument, which was constructed close to the main gate of the gardens, was dedicated to Mariamme Raffles as she had been an avid lover of plant life.

Source : kompas

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