Bali’s Mount Agung volcano has been at its highest alert level for over a month now, and Indonesian officials are desperately trying to convince tourists it’s still safe to travel to the Island of the Gods despite the possibility of imminent eruption even as tens of thousands of holiday seekers are putting a halt to their vacation plans there.
But Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the head of public relations at Indonesia’s Disaster Management National Agency (BNPB), sees a silver lining in clouds of volcanic smoke and ash. This morning on his official Twitter account, he shared a spectacular photo of a couple’s pre-wedding photo in front of another Indonesian volcano, Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, and suggested that volcano tourism, done from a safe distance, is something Indonesia needs to develop.
Prewedding dengan latar belakang erupsi Gunung Sinabung. Wisata erupsi gunung di tempat aman adalah potensi yang harus dikembangkan pic.twitter.com/i8NRJ0qLFp
— Sutopo Purwo Nugroho (@Sutopo_PN) October 24, 2017
“A pre-wedding photo with the background of an erupting Mount Sinabung. Volcanic eruption tourism, from a safe distance, has a potential that must be developed.“
Mount Sinabung has been spewing hot ash into the atmosphere intermittently since 2010 and has started to become more active recently even while people on the other side of the archipelago await Agung’s eruption.
The pre-wedding photo shared by Sutopo belongs to Malaysian daredevil photographer Keow Wee Loong and depicts him embracing his wife (then-fiancée) Marta Keow. Besides Indonesia, the couple actually traveled to 10 more countries for Keow to capture their spectacular pre-wedding photo in a variety of dramatic backdrops, including Norway, Japan, Italy, England, Austria, Germany, Poland, Malaysia, Sweden, and Denmark.
https://www.facebook.com/photismjp0813/posts/1407901362632016
Although his wedding photo in front of Mount Sinabung, taken in May, appears to be well outside of the volcano’s danger zone, Keow did enter the restricted red zone to take these incredible photos of the abandoned ghost towns within the shadow of the volcano.
https://www.facebook.com/jakartamysteryguide/posts/1955507251372036
Keow is famous for his other daring photography projects, including sneaking into Fukushima’s red zone to capture images of the towns abandoned after the nuclear disaster.
https://www.facebook.com/uglykiwi/posts/1109617319117881
Do you think that Sutopo’s suggestion of developing volcano tourism in Indonesia is a good idea, or do you think it might recklessly lead to more thrillseekers being put in harm’s way? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
