The island of Bali has suffered its own horrors in the past few years, but with most of Asia's top tourist beaches now laid to waste by merciless tsunamis, Indonesia's famous resort is cautiously eyeing a comeback.

With travel warnings still in place from governments urging their citizens to avoid Indonesia in case of a repeat of the October 2002 Bali bombings in which Islamic militants killed 202 people, the island has struggled to draw back the crowds.

Instead holidaymakers have swarmed to what they thought were the safe coasts of Thailand, Sri Lanka and India where, on Sunday, devastating tidal waves swept them from the shores, killing thousands.

Bali escapes unscathed
Although Indonesia's north Sumatra island bore the brunt of the magnitude 9.0 quake and the rampaging tides that followed, Bali, protected by more than 3000 kilometres of land mass, was completely untouched.

With tens of thousands of people dead on Sumatra, Indonesian tourism officials are hoping there will be at least one silver lining to the disaster — the revival of Bali.

"There is a possibility that Indonesia can get some 100 000 tourist returning, especially from European countries. We are studying this," Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said according to the state Antara new agency.

Gde Wiratha, chairman of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association's Bali branch said that while tourist numbers dropped by 800 last month after foreign governments warned of an imminent terrorist attack, the tsunami had not led to any significant cancellations.

"I think this could help Bali as an alternative destination, although we still have travel warnings from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States," he said.

"We don't really know how it will turn out yet, but Bali does have major destinations in the beach area."

Warning systems needed
Aloysius Purwa, a tour operator and the head of Bali's Crisis Centre for Natural Disaster was more circumspect, adding visitors would only flock if they felt secure on the island.

He said it would be necessary to set up tsunami warning systems, especially for areas like its upmarket south coast Nusa Dua resort, which is almost completely surrounded by sea.

Putu Agus Atara, chairman of the Bali Tourism Board, said the island could benefit, but only if it promotes the Hindu island's traditional culture and non-beach destinations in lush inland mountain scenery.

"Many people love to stay and walk on the beach, but with such an extreme number of people killed, this kind of activity will make people traumatised and maybe afraid to go to beach resorts altogether.

"There will probably be a global negative trend for beach resorts everywhere. The social effects of this calamity will be long and we need to anticipate with proper strategy."

Bali not immune
But even though Bali escaped this week's calamity, seismologists say they could not rule out a similar event striking the island, which lies close to the same geological faults that caused the Sumatra quake.

Most of the Indonesian archipelago lies atop the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide with intense pressure deep below the Earth's surface causing frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions.

"There is a split in the continental plates 200 kilometres south of Bali," said Asrori, the head of data at the Geophysics and Meteorology office on the island. "In Bali we experience more than 100 earthquakes a month, but most are very small, registering two to three on the Richter scale.

"The situation depends on the nature of the seabed. If, like off Sumatra, the bed is hard, then huge pressure will build up before something breaks. If the bed is soft then it can release pressure gradually without causing tsunamis."

Asrori said tests were still going on the sea floor south of Bali: "At the moment we don't know about its nature, so we have no idea whether Bali could be hit. It is very difficult to predict."

AFP