Indonesian tourism not affected by travel advice

Jakarta (Antaranews Bali) - Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that the travel advice issued by 14 countries for their citizens to travel to Indonesia has not affected Indonesian tourism.

"The Ministry of Tourism is monitoring the situation continuously. We are grateful that there has been no cancellation of visits to Indonesia, especially Bali. Bali is a barometer, but we are obliged to announce such incident (suicide bombing)," Yahya stated at the presidential palace here on Wednesday.

The 14 countries that have issued travel advice are the United Kingdom, the United State of America, Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Poland, Ireland, Canada, France, the Philippines, Switzerland, and Brazil.

"We have to be honest in this matter. We must immediately make an announcement if the situations return to normal, similar to the time when we announced the Sarinah bombing. We announced the incident within four hours after the condition had recovered," Yahya added.

According to the minister, his side has checked the country's three main destinations, namely Bali, Jakarta, and Riau islands, and there have been no cancellations.

"I checked it this morning. I will check it again this afternoon. If they issue a travel warning (travel ban), it will have an impact; for example, the travel warning issued during the eruption of Mount Agung had led to the cancellation of a million scheduled visits. So travel warning is basically a ban to travel. The travel advice does not issue a ban a visit places," Yahya pointed out.  (WDY)