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travel advisory issued by the Australian government has affected Bali'€™s tourism sector. The advisory, issued for security reasons, led to the cancellation of at least three cruise ships coming to the island.

Acting Benoa harbormaster Wayan Suarta said the cruise liners had been scheduled to dock at the Benoa port this week, but all had recently cancelled their plans.

'€œThe cruise ships notified us that they would cancel their plans to visit Bali. They only said it was because of security reasons without providing any further details,'€ Suarta said.

Suarta added that the cancellation was likely related to the Australian government'€™s travel advisory.

'€œI think the cancellation has something to do with Australia'€™s travel advisory because the cruise ships depart from Australia, and most of the passengers are Australians,'€ he said.

The Australian government announced on its website that terrorists might be '€œin the advanced stages'€ of preparing attacks in Indonesia, advising Australians visiting Indonesia to exercise a high degree of caution as they continue to '€œreceive information that indicates that terrorists may be planning attacks in Indonesia, which could take place anywhere at any time'€.

'€œRecent indications suggest that terrorists may be in the advanced stages of preparing attacks in Indonesia,'€ Australia'€™s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in an updated travel advisory.

The cancellation is affecting cruise tourism in Bali. Bali is expecting to welcome around 60 cruise ships this year. Last year, a total of 58 cruise ships arrived on the island, up from 49 ships in 2014, and 41 in 2013.

The island has recorded an increase in the number of cruise ship passengers, from 49,041 people in 2014 to 71,126 people in 2015. One cruise ship can carry an average of 1,000 to 2,000 passengers.

Suarta, however, was still optimistic that cruise tourism in Bali would not totally collapse as other cruises were still scheduled to come to the island.

'€œYesterday, the Volendam cruise ship from Singapore docked in Benoa. We will also have the Sun Princess dock on Thursday. So, other cruise ships remain on schedule to arrive in Bali,'€ Suarta said.

In contrast to cruise tourism, hotels in Bali have yet to receive any cancellations as a result of the travel advisory.

'€œCruise tourism has different characteristics, as their trip highly depends on the cruise'€™s management. But I can say that the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali is still high,'€ Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana, the Bali head of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), said.

The Indonesian Tourism Industry Association'€™s (GIPI) Bali chapter head Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya said that in order to not lose any more tourists, the government should do something to show that Indonesia and Bali were safe.

'€œWhen the travel advisory was issued, the government should have given a statement to counter the issue. Unfortunately, the government did not do anything,'€ Ngurah Wijaya said.

Ngurah Wijaya is also worried about the future of the Australian market in Bali tourism as the number of Australians visiting Bali has been decreasing of late.

'€œWe also need to do something to improve the situation. We could, for example, invite Australian media to visit Bali, so that they can report on the actual conditions in Bali,'€ he suggested.

The Bali Statistics Agency recorded 966,869 Australian visitors to Bali in 2015, a 2.53 percent decrease from the 991,923 visitors recorded in 2014. Australia ranked at the top in the number of foreign tourists visiting Bali with 24.16 percent of the 4 million arrivals in 2015, followed by China, Japan, Malaysia and the UK.