Twelve countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, have reportedly issued travel advisories for their citizens in Indonesia following recent terrorist attacks in Surabaya and Sidoarjo in East Java.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on Wednesday as quoted by kontan.co.id, that issuing travel advisories was a country’s responsibility to alert its citizens.
Arief said travel advisories meant a country was still safe to visit, explaining that there were three levels of alerts, namely travel advisory, travel warning and travel ban.
He also explained that several countries issued travel warnings last year amid Mount Agung’s eruption in Karangasem, Bali, with island seeing a loss of up to 1 million tourist arrivals.
Arief said the recent bomb attacks could cause a similar loss.
The minister expressed his hope that the situation in Indonesia would return to normal soon.
Source: Jakarta Post
Photo courtesy of worldatlas.com