In response to the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, law enforcers in Bali will carry out necessary security measures to ensure the safety of locals and foreigners in the country'€™s most popular tourist destination, a high-ranking police official has said.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Denpasar, National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Budi Gunawan also called on local residents in Bali to take an active role in securing the resort island, where millions of visitors have arrived annually for the past several decades.

'€œBalinese people are very welcome, very open, and very positive in their thinking. Thus, they need to be more vigilant [against any potential threats],'€ he said on Thursday.

At least 129 people died and 352 others were injured in a series of gun-and-suicide bombing attacks coordinated by a group from Islamic State (IS) across Paris last Friday.

The attacks in Paris, alongside earlier bombings in Lebanon and Turkey and the downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, have been seen as an indication that IS has grown bold enough to strike a variety of targets far from its base in Iraq and Syria.

Budi, meanwhile, was adamant that local police had implemented strategies to prevent a similar incident from taking place in Bali.

'€œWe have reminded all Bali Police personnel to increase vigilance. Of course, there are some [security] measures that must be implemented, which I cannot convey here,'€ he said.

Bali has suffered two large-scale terrorist attacks in the past.

On Oct. 12, 2002, an al-Qaeda affiliated cell organized an attack targeting two popular nightclubs in Kuta using suicide bombers and a powerful car bomb. 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, died when the bombs exploded that night, one at the Sari Club and the other at Paddy'€™s Pub in the same area. More than 200 people were injured.

The second attack, took place on Oct. 1, 2005, and involved three suicide bombers, claiming 20 lives.

Budi said that the role of local residents and pecalang (traditional Balinese security guards) would be influential, assisting local law enforcers to maintain security in the resort island.

'€œPecalang are the partners of the National Police. We hope we can uphold our synergy,'€ he said, adding that the police would also be expecting pecalang to help maintain local security ahead of and during the upcoming simultaneous regional head elections, scheduled to be held on Dec. 9.

When contacted, Indonesian Tourism Industry Association'€™s (GIPI) Bali chapter head Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya said that local tourism practitioners had consistently implemented security procedures to safeguard their respective property, as it is acknowledged that security is one of the most crucial features in the industry.

'€œWe understand that terror threats can target every place in the world, including European countries. As a vital area, Bali could be a target as well. Even if there is no actual threat, we have to remain alert,'€ he said.

The Bali Tourist Agency revealed that 3.76 million foreign tourists visited the island in 2014, an increase of 14.94 percent from 3.27 million tourists recorded in 2013.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Bali office, meanwhile, show a total of 2.99 million foreign tourists visiting Bali during the first nine months of this year and, of that figure, some 99,000 were French.

Wijaya said that the recent attacks in Paris would reduce the number of French tourists visiting Bali in the near future, as many of them would likely postpone trips abroad.

'€œMany French people are likely to avoid long journeys, considering them a risk. We are predicting that the number of French tourists visiting Bali might drop by 20,000 people [this year],'€ he said.

Earlier this week, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian also appeased foreign missions in the capital by saying that their investigations had not found any indication of terrorist attacks in the city in the near future.
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