Tourists are staying put on the beaches of Indonesia's resort island of Bali, unfazed by the tsunami waves that have wreaked havoc at holiday destinations across Asia.

"There are only minor cancellations from tourists arriving for the end of the year," Aloysius Purwa of Bali's Crisis Center for Natural Disaster.

More than 80,000 people have been killed across Asia as huge waves thrown up by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake off the Indonesian coast crashed into some of the region's most popular beaches.

Bali, which is only just recovering from the effects of the October 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people were killed in attacks mounted by Islamic extremists, was unaffected by the quake.

The island is located more than 4,000 kilometers (2,400 miles) from the epicenter and is sheltered by other land masses in the Indonesian archipelago.

Purwa, also one of Bali's leading travel agents, said he had been contacted by foreign partners almost immediately after Sunday's calamity struck Aceh province on Sumatra island, expressing concern over safety.

"I told them that Aceh to Bali is as far as Amsterdam to Cairo."

He said there had been a distribution of information to people in Bali to help ease fears.

© 2004 Agence France-Presse