| The U.S. has cancelled its eight-year
travel warning for visitors to Indonesia, citing a reduced risk of violence
after the arrest of suspected terrorists since the last major attack in
2005. |
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| Australia is under pressure to lift
its travel warning to Indonesia after the United States cancelled a similar
alert. The US cancelled its travel warning over the weekend. The alert
had been in place since November 2000, following a series of bombings in
Jakarta, and later in Bali. "The US has lifted the warning due to objective
improvements made by Indonesia in its current security situation, "the
US Embassy said, "Indonesia had not had a |
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| major terrorist attack since 2005,
and the Indonesian government has disrupted, arrested and prosecuted numerous
terrorists." |
| Australia Travel Warning |
| Australia - which lost 88 citizens
in the 2002 Bali bombings - still has a strong travel warning in place
for Indonesia, urging citizens to reconsider their need to travel to the
country "due to the very high threat of terrorist attack". It says the
attacks could take place at any time and could be imminent, and urges citizens
in the country to "exercise extreme caution". A spokesman for Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hoped the US move would lead other countries
to reconsider their warnings. "The US move is warmly greeted by Indonesia
- we have always believed our country is safe," spokesman Dino Pati Djalal
said. "A terrorist attack can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time,
so I think the lifting of the travel warning by the US is reconfirmation
of what we have been saying and doing all this time and we welcome it.
"We certainly hope that those who still have the travel warning on Indonesia
would follow suit." |
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Bali Arrivals
Up 30%
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| The Central Statistics Agency (BPS)
said Bali remained Indonesia’s most popular destination for foreigners,
with 446,886 arriving, a 28.38% increase from last years 363,686. Overall
Indonesia saw a 15.7% jump in foreign arrivals to 1.41 Mill. in the first
quarter from 1.22 Mill. last year. There were 291,092 visitors |
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| from Singapore, 202,128 from Malaysia
and 140,682 from Japan, while South Koreans, Australians, Chinese, Taiwanese,
UK, US A and Indians made up the rest. |
| Way down were visitors from the EU
with a combined total of 6% of Indonesian arrivals. |
| An air embargo imposed by the European
Union |
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| on Indonesian air carriers is likely
to have resulted in the decrease in visitors from EU countries. |
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