Bali Volcano Misinformation Scam
According to a military official, there was only talk of closing the Bali Airport for a few hours, due to the Bali Volcano, but that never came to fruition. At the time it looked like wind currents might disrupt airport traffic bringing ash from the volcano, but that shifted and made it unnecessary. Reports of airline cancellations were the result of overreactions on their part at best, outright misinformation being fed to them by media sources with an agenda at worst.
The Australian press seems to jump at any opportunity to dissuade or outright stop their people from tourism in Bali. They are especially rabid in this effort around school holidays. I read a report about one family that changed their travel plans and went to Hawaii instead. I hope they weren’t on a budget, because the 14 days they planned will cost them as much as six weeks in Bali. Too bad they jumped the gun!!
Mt Agung had a minor event that sent ash into the air and made for some fabulous pictures captured by these lucky individuals. I have reposted their great shots here from Instagram. What a great job of catching the beauty of nature in all its scary glory. Kudos to people like this who post the truth. Bali is still safe.
Bali Volcano: First Event in 54 Years
Back in November Mt Agung had its first event in some 54 years. Numbers may vary but some 100,000 locals were evacuated from the immediate vicinity of Mt. Agung. I give the Indonesian government an A+ in their reaction to this event. Governments anywhere in the world rarely if ever, respond to such an event with the speed and professionalism that was seen here. Evacuation centers were so well prepared and well-stocked that offers to donate supplies were turned away.
Because this was a Bali Volcano, local government stepped up and provided bus transportation to Surabaya at ridiculously low prices for those supposedly stranded tourists who needed to catch a flight out. Airport closures were only on and off for a few days. Imagine how terrible it would be to have to spend a few extra days in Bali. I can’t imagine a better work excuse and boo hoo what a tragedy.
Bali Volcano: Result
As a consequence of the feeding frenzy for over-sensationalized headlines by the International media. Over a BILLION dollars, some estimated as high as 1.5 billion was ravaged from the Bali economy. I could not find one single article about the fact that this event had ZERO causalities. Not even a reported injury. Articles focused on deaths in 1963. Which in terms of today’s volcanic science were the dark ages. Articles completely ignored what a fabulous job the Indonesian government did. Not to mention government announcements that Bali was SAFE.
How sad is it that the press around the world can only report stories with sensational headlines? Completely ignoring reporting a complete story. As always there are two sides to every story. This is my attempt to expose the whole truth about the Bali Volcano. Even with all this, TripAdvisor nominated Bali as the number ONE travel destination in the WORLD for 2017. Beating out London, Paris and New York. See the video
From all of us who know and love Bali. Shame on all of you who didn’t take the time to do your homework on this story. Causing more harm to the warm and wonderful people here, than a volcano ever could. People who would only welcome you with their world-renowned hospitality. Shame on all of you who quickly penned stories without considering their gravity to the population here.
