Indonesia terrorist attacks: 12 countries issue travel advisories

Twelve countries, including United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia, have issued travel advisories for their citizens in Indonesia following recent terrorist attacks in Surabaya and Sidoarjo in East Java.

Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that issuing travel advisories was a country’s responsibility to alert its citizens. “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 said.

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. He expressed his hope that the situation in Indonesia would return to normal soon.