The government has reaffirmed that the active Mount Agung is unlikely to interrupt tourists’ plans of a vacation full of sun, sea and surf in a bid to lure them back to the Island of the Gods.

The tourism industry has been severely hit since the volcano’s eruption in November as many countries have released travel advisories for its citizens traveling to Bali.

China, the top contributor of tourists to Indonesia, previously warned its citizens to be prepared for the possibility of being stranded in Bali. China’s aviation authority has suspended all flights from Bali to Chinese cities until the threat of an eruption clears, according to Chinese state-run newspaper People’s Daily.

Despite the bad press, the government hopes to turn things around as Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan urged tourists not to postpone their plans to visit the resort island.

He stressed that the exclusion zone of Mt. Agung was a 10-kilometer radius from the volcano’s crater, meaning that those outside of the zone would not be affected by any volcanic activity.

“Just go on vacation to Bali, don’t postpone it […] I guarantee that the areas outside of the 10-kilometer [radius] are safe and normal,” Luhut said on Friday, while also acknowledging that the alert status was set as “high.”

Mt. Agung, the highest point in Bali, is 75 km away from the tourist hub of Kuta and 52 km away from Ubud, an iconic town known for its proximity to rainforests and terraced rice paddies.

A recent simulation by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry showed that tourist areas outside of the exclusion zone would not be affected, even in the case of an eruption.

Moreover, a forecast by the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) shows that winds in January are likely to blow east, sparing Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar from being hit by volcanic ash.

Although hundreds of flights were canceled and thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport after it closed for three days last month, it resumed normal operations in December.

In addition to attempting to coax tourists into traveling to Bali, Luhut also urged the government not to move any conferences planned to be held in Bali. As it stands, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank (WB) meeting is still scheduled to take place in Bali next year.

“There is no reason to move the location of the IMF-WB [event] in this situation,” he said.

Bali, Indonesia’s main tourism gateway, welcomed 4.9 million foreign tourists out of a total 11.5 million that visited Indonesia last year.

The government, which initially expected 5.5 million tourists to visit the paradise island this year, has acknowledged that it was unlikely to reach its target of welcoming 15 million foreign tourists nationwide.

Tourism has been one of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s priorities since the start of his term three years ago, with goals to make the sector the top contributor to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019.

“We are watching the development of travel warnings from some countries. We hope there will be no more travel warnings,” Dadang Rizki Ratman, the Tourism Ministry’s deputy for destinations and tourism development, said.

“But we are still on alert because people have different perceptions. Even though our country is safe, other people might still perceive it as unsafe.”

Separately, the head of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association’s (PHRI) Bali chapter, Tjokorda Artha Ardana Sukawati, said that hotels in Bali have suffered since the eruption, with the average occupancy rate sitting at 20 percent. In contrast, the average occupancy rate last December was around 65 percent.

“With the Chinese market, hotels suffered from an occupancy rate of 10 to 15 percent. Because the Chinese market is pretty disciplined [with travel advisories], the government has a huge interest in getting China to revoke the travel advisory,” he said.

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