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Stranded tourists to be handled with care: govt
The government has pledged to accommodate stranded tourists affected by the continual volcanic activity of Mount Raung in Bondowoso, East Java, which has forced the closure of airports from Bali to East Java
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he government has pledged to accommodate stranded tourists affected by the continual volcanic activity of Mount Raung in Bondowoso, East Java, which has forced the closure of airports from Bali to East Java.
Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on Monday that the ministry would coordinate with other institutions, including the Transportation Ministry and state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I (AP I), to handle stranded tourists.
The ministry expected a lower number of foreign arrivals this month as a result of the eruptions, Arief said. However, he was reluctant to give an estimate, saying the volcanic activity could continue.
'The number of foreign arrivals in Bali reached about 10,000 people per day, while the number of domestic tourists was twice the number of foreign tourists. Therefore, one day of airport closure has a significant impact on Bali's tourism,' Arief said on Monday.
'We predicted that this disaster would significantly affect the number of foreign tourists recorded this month. However, we cannot reveal a predicted figure just yet as eruptions may continue,' he said, adding that about 40 percent of the country's foreign tourists arrived in Bali.
Volcanic ash from Mt. Raung closed Bali's international airport several times between July 9 and 22, leading to the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights, creating a backlog that took days to clear.
On July 10, the ministry set up crisis centers in Jakarta, Surabaya and Denpasar in Bali to accommodate tourists affected by Mt. Raung's activity.
He said the crisis centers were tasked with providing transportation alternatives, including sea and land, to accommodate stranded tourists in cooperation with the Transportation Ministry and AP I, which manages airports in the eastern part of the country.
The number of affected passengers being handled by the crisis centers is being calculated, said Arief.
'Since trains and sea transportation have not been disrupted by the eruptions, we have offered airline passengers the chance to switch from airlines to trains and ships,' the minister said. 'This is a blessing in disguise for tourism, since we can also promote tourism in the form of our landscape due to this disaster.'
Several other airports, such as Juanda International Airport in Surabaya and Abdul Rachman Saleh Airport in Malang, East Java, have also been closed several times this month.
As of Monday, Jember Airport in East Java remained closed.
Air traffic is regularly disrupted by volcanic eruptions in the country, which sits on a belt of seismic activity running around the basin of the Pacific Ocean and is home to the highest number of active volcanoes in the world at about 130.
Experts have said that the main concern for airlines regarding volcanic ash is not that it can affect visibility but rather that it can damage aircraft as ash turns into molten glass when it is sucked into jet engines.
The number of foreign arrivals in Bali reached 287,100 in May, an increase of 0.41 percent from the same month last year. Compared to April, the number dropped 7.34 percent.
According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), total foreign arrivals during the first five months of the year reached 3.84 million people, a slight 3.85 percent increase from the same period in 2014 ' far below the growth recorded last year.
