DENPASAR. The local tourism industry has incurred losses worth around Rp 45 billion due to the impact of Mount Barujari's eruption in neighboring West Nusa Tenngara Province, according to the Bali tourism office.

"(Frequent) closures of the airport caused losses amounting to some Rp 45 billion," Head of the Bali tourism office Agung Yuniartha stated here on Monday (9/11).

Until the morning of Nov. 9, some 25.000 foreign tourists had cancelled their visit to Bali as the airport had been frequently closed since Nov. 3.

The Bali tourism industry was significantly affected since the tourists had to cancel their hotel bookings.

"Overall, the tourism industry has suffered losses in revenue. There were cancellations of hotel room reservations. The loss is estimated to reach US$ 1.5 thousand on a daily basis," he affirmed.

A total of at least 700 flights were cancelled due to the airport being closed several times.

Since its closure on Sunday due to the volcanic ash spewed by Mount Barujari, the Bali airport was reopened on Monday morning.

However, two Australian airlines Jetstar and Virgin Australia decided to cancel all their flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali on Monday.

In July and August, the Bali airport was closed on several instances due to the eruption of Mount Raung located in East Java province.

Editor: Sanny Cicilia