8 Countries Issue Travel Advisory following May 22 Riot
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23 May 2019 11:36 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A total of eight countries have reportedly issued a travel advisory for their citizens willing to visit Indonesia following the rally on May 22 that turned into a riot in Jakarta for the past two days.
“Canada, United States, England, and Australia have issued travel advisories,” said Tourism Ministry spokesman Guntur Sakti when Tempo reached on Thursday, May 23.
Four other countries followed the decision are Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines.
The U.S. was the first in issuing the travel advisory for a week after the riot on the website of the US Embassy to Indonesia. England, Canada, and Australia followed.
Neighboring Malaysia, meanwhile, issued the advisory on May 18 via its official Twitter account @MYEmbassyJakarta, calling its citizen to take caution when traveling to Indonesia. The Philippines also issued the alert via its Twitter account twice on May 21 and May 22, while the two other countries published their suggestions on the embassy’s site.
Travel advisory or travel alert means that a country does not ban its citizen to visit a destination country but provides information about the relative safety of traveling.
Guntur explained that it is a common appeal and not a threat to Indonesia’s tourism sector. According to him, the alert is commonly issued by a country’s authorities as their duty and responsibilities to protect its citizens.
FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA
