W

hile lingering concerns over Mount Agung’s volcanic activity has caused many foreign visitors to rethink their year-end vacation to Bali, the government has ramped up its efforts to send a reassuring signal that the Island of the Gods is safe.

The Tourism has suffered immensely since Mt. Agung’s minor eruption at the end of November. The Tourism Ministry has estimated that US$1.2 billion in potential losses from Bali’s tourism sector were incurred this year as the volcano’s ash forced the temporary closure of Ngurah Rai International Airport, stranding thousands of foreign visitors.

However, the government is not giving up on luring foreign tourists to ring in the New Year on the island.

On Friday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo cuffed his pants and dipped his toes in the waters off Kuta to demonstrate how safe the tourist hub is.

Following a selfie-taking session on the beach, Jokowi and his Cabinet ministers held a closed-door meeting to review the volcano’s activity and its effects on the island.

“We want to show that Bali is safe. Bali is safe to spend the end of the year on, and so there should not be any [negative] perception due to Mt. Agung’s eruption,” he said.

The government has repeatedly stated that Bali’s tourist hubs are safe despite Mt. Agung’s alert status as any eruption would only affect the area within 10 kilometers of the volcano’s crater, with the wind blowing in a northeasterly direction until next March.

Despite the government’s reassurances, many countries continue to maintain their travel warnings.

China, the top tourist contributor to the island, has warned its citizens to be prepared for the possibility of being stranded on Bali and its aviation authority has suspended all flights connecting the island to Chinese cities until the threat of an eruption clears.

The Tourism Ministry claims that no Chinese tourists have visited Bali since then.

On Friday, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said he would ask the President to revoke the level 4 emergency status on Bali during the closed-door meeting.

He hoped that it would encourage other countries to revoke their travel warnings.

“Other countries issued travel warnings because of the emergency status. With the revocation, we hope they will also revoke their travel warnings,” he said.

Luhut’s ministry also spoke to representatives from 15 embassies, including China, Australia, Singapore and Japan, to convince them that Bali is safe.

Arief Havas Oegroseno, the ministry’s deputy for maritime sovereignty, said the briefing was intended to inform the countries that the worst-case scenario is not as bad as previously imagined.

Mt. Agung, the highest point on Bali, is 75 km from the tourist hub of Kuta and 52 km from Ubud, an iconic landscape known for its rainforest and terraced rice paddies.

“We hope that the [representatives] can report to their respective countries and revise their travel warnings,” Arief said at the ministry in Jakarta.

Meanwhile, the Japanese Embassy’s deputy chief of mission Kozo Honsei said Japan merely asked its citizens not to enter the prohibited area around the volcano since the Indonesian government has maintained Mount Agung’s level 4 status.

The government previously stated that the volcanic activity has led it to estimate that only 14 million foreign tourists will visit Indonesia out of 15 million it initially set out to attract by the end of the year. Bali contributes around 40 percent of the archipelago’s total tourism revenue.

The Tourism Ministry has since pledged to disburse Rp 100 billion to provide hot deal packages to lure tourists during the first three months of 2018. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has already started offering half-price tickets to Denpasar for its frequent flier members.

The state has also brushed aside rumors that it would move the 2018 International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting, which will be held in Bali in October.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said Jokowi and his ministers’ visit to Bali proved that Bali remains safe.

The IMF will send a team from Washington on Jan. 29 to check if Bali is safe.