German tour operator cancel trips to Indonesia
German tour operator cancel trips to Indonesia
Agencies, Frankfurt
German tourism operator TUI AG has canceled all trips to the
Indonesian island of Bali this week following Saturday's
suspected terrorist attacks, German news agency VWD reported
Monday.
Other German tourism operators, such as Thomas Cook AG and
Deutsche Lufthansa AG, said their services were unchanged given a
lack of cancellations by customers as of Monday morning.
Thomas Cook said its call-center hadn't reported trip
cancellations, spokesman Markus Ruediger said. Of the company's
500 customers now in Bali, none had yet decided to leave the
island, he said.
Of the 100 Thomas Cook customers who booked their trips from
Germany, one person was missing and one injured, Ruediger said.
Thomas Cook, which is jointly owned by Lufthansa and
KarstadtQuelle AG, hasn't canceled trips to Bali, but is offering
free cancellations or rebookings to all customers set to travel
through the end of the month.
TUI canceled all its trips to Bali this week, promising to
either give customers their money back or book them on trips to
other vacation destinations.
Of about 200 Germans who were on TUI vacations in Bali when
the bombs went off, four decided to cut short their trips and
were flown home, news agency VWD reported.
Meanwhile, Greece Monday warned its nationals to avoid
traveling to Indonesia and the tourist island of Bali.
Government spokesman Christos Protopappas said a Greek tourist
was injured in Saturday's bombing and at least one Greek with a
Swedish passport was missing.
Separately, Lonely Planet guides, the bible of adventurous
globetrotting, urged travelers Monday to avoid Bali.
"Tourists are advised to delay any trips to Bali until more is
known about the recent attacks," it said.
Meanwhile, organizers had decided to move an international
energy conference from Bali to Singapore.
The Seventh Annual Condensate Forum on Oct. 24-25 has been
shifted to Singapore for the safety of the 100 delegates expected
to attend, said Vimla Mulchand, director of the Singapore-based
organizer, Conference Connection Administrators.
Mulchand said it was "the best solution, since most of the
international delegates were going to fly to Bali via Singapore."