The latest Bali bombings threaten to ruin the island's tourism industry just as it was recovering from terrorist attacks three years ago, with at least one regional government yesterday urging its citizens to stay away and tour operators predicting an immediate drop in visitors.
Powerful blasts blamed on suicide bombers ripped through three crowded Bali restaurants late Saturday, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens more.
The attacks, focused on popular tourist areas, came almost exactly three years after the Oct. 12, 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and several other foreigners.
Tourism on the mostly Hindu island took a dive after the 2002 attacks and was just beginning to revive when Saturday's bombings ripped another hole in the industry.
Indonesia's Tourism Minister Jero Wacik predicted a sharp drop in visitors, but said he hopes Bali will bounce back.
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard yesterday urged Australians traveling to Indonesia to rethink their plans.
"They should think very hard about going to Bali," he told reporters in Sydney.
He said Australia did not have any specific intelligence that another attack on Bali was imminent, but had for some time warned that attacks were possible in Indonesia, which he said "remains a very dangerous place."
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade renewed its travel warning Sunday, urging Australians -- who flock to nearby Bali by the thousands -- to defer nonessential travel to Indonesia and advising those already in the country to consider leaving.
South Korea's Director-General of consular affairs, Lee Joon-kyu, said the country's travel warning for Bali had remained in place since the 2002 bombings and would not change now.
Cho Hyun-ok, a spokeswoman from Eworld Tour, an agency specializing in Indonesia -- said about 10 percent of reservations were canceled after the latest attacks, and demand for Indonesian trips would remain low for now.
Tour operator Masabumi Hattori of Tokyo-based Marine Jack, a company offering scuba diving Bali tours, said several travelers due to leave for the island yesterday had canceled their trips.
"I think everybody's waiting to see what happens next. But I do believe people will again avoid Bali as a travel destination," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in