Can Bali solve its tourist dilemma?

Foreign tourists relax on the Kuta beach near Denpasar on the Indonesian island of Bali on November 18, 2023. Credit – Sonny Tumbelaka – AFP/Getty Images

WThe American adventurer and filmmaker André Roosevelt, born in French, traveled to the Indonesian island of Bali in 1924, he had conflict.

The cousin of the former President Theodore Roosevelt saw the clear beauty and attraction of the place he referred to as “Last Paradise”, and he would produce a film that was attributed to the island with the Kickstart of American travel building and laid resorts with such visitors. But he also asked how long this paradise would take.

Roosevelt wrote in 1930 that he could not observe from the inevitable “destruction” of Bali from the inevitable “invasion” of western sightseeers and vacationers. Among other things, he suggested that the Balinese government impose “a head tax on all tourists”.

However, the idea of ​​a tourist tax to combat the challenges of upourism does not really dates from the 17th century, beyond some places like Bhutan in the 1970s to the past few years. Bali finally recorded Roosevelt’s recommendation in 2024.

Today’s Bali is perhaps a realization of the dream and nightmare that Roosevelt presented a century ago. Indeed, it is one of the world’s leading goals that enchanting visitor stands with its picturesque beaches and its lush nature, a lively culture and the cozy atmosphere as well as relative affordability for a luxury luxury luxury year after year. However, it is also a multi -year observation that these visitors change the place massively due to their presence and remove their exotic charm.

“Each intruder on the island quickly registers its beaches, magical dances and golden local beauties from Gauguin, and then realizes that all these joys are crushed by a camera that is crushed by extraterrestrial surfers, satyrs and souvenir hunters.

The foreign visitors of Balis represent both its primary business driver and his greatest headache. Unpleasant tourists have caused traffic jams and public orders, insulted local sensitivity, the environment and deteriorated sacred sites. According to 2019 estimates, they also make 60-70% of its regional GDP out of a surgical share compared to the national tourism sector, which is about 5% of Indonesian GDP.

It is a mystery that the local government has solved – but not for a lack of attempts.

Last year Bali recorded 6.33 million international visitor and in 2019 its preliminary pandemic highlight of 6.28 million and corresponded to almost half of the country’s 2024 visitors. But it still wants more.

The head of the province tourist office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, set a target of 6.5 million visitors in 2025 in January in January. However, he also admitted that such a performance would exacerbate the challenges of upourism, which the island of the population has already faced 4.4 million.

The problem, said Pemayun, was that the existing rules to keep tourists in chess were not enforced: “We will start carrying out law enforcement measures, since the tourism players believe in relation to the regulations that they are already complete. What is still to do is implementation and synchronization.”

At the beginning of this week, the governor of Iceland, Wayan Koster, who returned to office last February, announced that he would do exactly that: updating a list of DOS and nothing that had been installed in the passports of visitors since 2023. Holy trees or monuments behave disrespectfully, such as B. swears or disposable plastics.)

“If things change, we have to adapt”Koster said when we made the announcement that was made before the Balinese New Year on March 29, a local celebration that was characterized by silence and meditation.

The only modifications: If you find that the tourist tax introduced in February 2024 is actually mandatory and increases the enforcement mechanisms for the more comprehensive compliance with the rules.

Through the 318 billion Indonesian Rupiah (around 19 million US dollars), which was collected last year, only paid the tourist fee around a third of the foreign Bali visitors -although a tourism police, the police unit of the Bali Office Service, or the Satpol -pp had been founded to check whether the visitors had made the online payment.

In the future, tourists who do not pay the levy will be refused to access attractions, and violations of the other rules will be confronted with legal consequences in accordance with Indonesian law such as fines, prison periods or deportation. (Last year, the Bali police pursued 226 foreigners, including 34 Americans.) Balis Satpol -PP will be responsible for ensuring compliance with compliance, while the police of Bali will initiate legal measures against serious criminals. Koster also asked the public to report on any cases of harassment or illegal behavior.

Niluh Djelantik, an Indonesian Senator and Balinese-born, who has taken advantage of the handling of misconduct tourists in recent years, says that she believes that some foreigners have treated Indonesia “like the Wild West”- even if the country as a whole in morality or religious laws in the varying Law in particular the entrepreneur of the varying law. For example, sex outside of marriage in Indonesia, but for tourists in Bali, is not enforced because the local authorities do not want to deter western visitors. But that does not mean that the island is lawless.

“There are some other tourists who have probably decided that they can do everything they want in Indonesia”described djelantic. She suggests that a historical perception of corruption in the nation could have played a role in the constant desecration of Bali. (Indonesia took 99th place under 180 countries and areas that were rated in the Corruption Index of Transparency International last year.) In particular, the Balinese authorities received bribes and blackmail tourists to overlook violations.

Other measures are weighed to stop the unrest. Last year, Indonesia used the construction of new hotels in parts of the island position because they invite you to fear over development and more visitors.

In 2023, Koster emphasized a development plan for Bali next century from 2025 to 2125, which, according to a report by Channel News Asia (CNA) – the first report by the Balinese authorities – recognized the effects of upours on the island.

But not all measures came smoothly. In March 2023, Koster announced that tourists would be banned after a number of accidents and traffic violations of driving motorcycles, but it was never fully implemented. In May 2023, Koster announced an immediate ban on all tourist visits to Bali 22 Holy Bergen, although CNA reported that the activities were continued and the ban was “as good as thought”. In January 2024, a steep entertainment tax for Services by Karaoke bars, Spas and night clubs was proposed, although this was scrapped in the next month after the setback from local companies.

In the end, the most promising measure to solve Bali’s tourist problem is the tourist tax, although it may have to be even higher for some – to do this – to have the desired effect. “One of the concerns is that Bali is sold as a cheap travel destination”Pemayun told CNA last year. “Hopefully we can minimize this so that we can do Bali better in the future.” Wayan Puspa Negara, chairman of the Bali Marginal Tourism Actors Alliance, said in February in a similar way to the local news organization The Bali Sun:

Bali is certainly not the only global goal that is tense through upourism. In July in July, the residents of Barcelona made headlines because they overrun against their city in protest. The then Minister of Tourism Indonesia, Sandiaga Uno, warned in September that if Bali recorded an increase in tourists by 10%, the same kind of local frustration could soon exceed. “We have to avoid a situation like Barcelona in which tourists became public enemies”he said. But this 10% threshold was more than in the foreign visitor record from 2024 – an increase of 20% compared to 2023.

Some have caused some to question the compatibility of the goal of increasing international arrivals this year to 6.5 million – 200,000 more than in 2024 – with the desire to contain the problems of the surface. “Are we only talking about the number of more tourists, which means that more income for who? More tourists mean more prosperity -who for whom?” asks Djelantik.

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