Indonesia's tourism industry suffers another blow after European countries called for their citizens in Indonesia to refrain from traveling with local airlines, the industry association said Monday.

The move follows a European Union ruling that bans all Indonesian airlines to fly to the EU territories.

European tourists in Indonesia's resort island of Bali have been urged by their governments to avoid flying with local airlines, said Al Purwa, chairman of the Bali Travel Bureaus Association.

"The (association) members have received facsimiles and emails from European countries asking their citizens in Bali to cancel trips out from Bali," he was quoted by leading news website Detikcom as saying.

The call will certainly prevent tourists in the famous island from continuing their trips to other Indonesia's resorts, and vice versa, he said.

"Yesterday (Sunday), a group of (European) tourists in Surabaya eager to visit Bali were asked to travel on bus, those from Lombok to Bali to use ferry and from Yogyakarta to Bali to travel with train."

Surabaya is located 200 km from Bali and Yogyakarta in southern Java is 450 km away.

Purwa said Britain, France and Germany have issued the specific air travel warning to their citizens in Indonesia.

The number of European visitors in Bali reached 149,980 or nearly 25 percent of total foreign tourists on the island in five months ending May this year, with around 20 percent of them willing to continue trips to other destinations.

The EU last week announced a ban to all Indonesian airlines from flying to the region due to concern over the country's poor air safety record.

Source: Xinhua