The Indonesian Tourism Minister made an impassioned plea to the British travel industry last week to resume travel to his country. He said that if it was safe enough for President George Bush to visit, it was safe enough for Britons.

The Foreign Office continues to warn against all non-essential travel to Indonesia, but Gede Ardika said at the travel industry event World Travel Market in London last week: 'Those famous travel advisories. If they tell people not to travel there, and if people stay at home, we are celebrating the victory of the terrorists.

'Many international events take place in Bali and Indonesia, the President of the United States made a stopover in Bali. This shows the situation is normal.'

But the Foreign Office insists that there is a continued high threat of terrorism.

Ardika said: 'Since last year, Indonesia has faced so many tragedies; in Bali, the war in Iraq and also Sars outbreaks. They were a good les son for us. We are quite optimistic that tourism will continue to play a key role in our economy.'

The Bali bombings of October 2002 killed 202 people, including 26 British and 88 Australian tourists. They were thought to have been perpetrated by the extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, which has links to al-Qaeda. Following the bombings, the Foreign Office advised against all travel to Indonesia, but this was downgraded to all non-essential travel in January.

The Indonesian government said an integrated security system was being developed to help reassure visitors, and the country would be made more appealing to tourists with a focus on ecotourism and the development of marine activities such as surfing, water-skiing and diving.

Around 7.7 million people work in tourism in Indonesia, and last year it made up 9.8 per cent of the gross domestic product. It is the second most profitable industry after oil and gas, but the Minister predicted it would become the biggest source of income.

Ardika said the government wanted to focus the promotion of Indonesia in the countries that had provided a significant number of tourists in the past.

Last year, western Europe made up around 20 per cent of tourism revenue, compared with Far Eastern and Asian markets which contributed around 30 per cent each. Of the western European market, British visitors contributed the most to tourism revenue with 19.8 per cent.

But British tour operators are following Foreign Office advice. A spokesman from Cox & Kings said: 'We stopped going there after the Bali bombings. If the Foreign Office changed its advice we would look to see if it was a safe place to go, but at the moment it's out of the question.'