negative impacts of tourism on bali

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Negative Impacts of Tourism in Bali: A Comprehensive Guide

In this article, we explore the negative impacts of tourism in Bali, such as environmental issues and effects on equality, as well as touching on some of the positive consequences of tourism.

By Victoria Heinz, of www.guideyourtravel.com All images courtesy of Victoria Heinz

Have you ever dreamed of visiting the beautiful beaches and temples of Bali? This Balinese paradise is a popular tourist destination for many travellers, however it’s important to be aware that tourism may have its drawbacks.

In this article we will examine some of the negative impacts that travel in Bali can have on both the people and environment. From increased infrastructure problems to waste management issues – it pays to do your research before planning a trip, especially if you’re planning to visit popular areas like Uluwatu or Canggu. So read on to find out more about these potential pitfalls and how you can make conscious choices while enjoying Bali!

As any traveller to Indonesia is aware, the country is brimming with lush nature and unique wildlife. It’s a paradise for anyone looking to explore or escape in its natural beauty. However, beneath the surface lies an environmental crisis facing Indonesia today that demands action from both local and international travellers alike.

Table of Contents

Overview of Indonesia’s Current Environmental Situation

Indonesia is currently facing a significant environmental challenge. The rapid expansion of industries such as mining, agriculture, and forestry has resulted in deforestation, soil degradation, and air pollution. Additionally, the country’s coastline and marine life have been heavily impacted by plastic waste pollution.

The government has made some strides in addressing these issues by implementing policies and programs aimed at conserving the environment, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable agriculture . However, much more needs to be done to protect Indonesia’s vast natural resources for future generations .

The Most Pressing Environmental Issue in Indonesia – Deforestation and Land Conversion

Indonesia is facing a critical environmental issue that requires immediate attention – deforestation and land conversion. As one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, Indonesia’s forests are home to countless species of flora and fauna. However, rampant deforestation for agriculture, logging, and mining activities is causing irreversible damage to these precious ecosystems.

This not only affects the environment but also the livelihoods of local communities and indigenous peoples who rely on these forests for survival. The scale of deforestation in Indonesia is staggering, making it an urgent concern that must be addressed to ensure the sustainability of the country’s natural resources and the well-being of its people.

What are the Negative Impacts of Tourism in Bali?

• Overcrowding Issues

As our world becomes more connected and travel becomes easier, more people are flocking to popular tourist destinations. Unfortunately, this influx of visitors has led to a host of overcrowding issues.

Certain areas simply aren’t equipped to handle the sheer volume of people, leading to increased pollution, traffic congestion, and unsustainable practices. It’s heartbreaking to see natural wonders like the beaches in Uluwatu and national parks in northern Bali overrun with tourists, leaving trails of litter and damage in their wake.

The challenge now is finding ways to balance the economic benefits of tourism with the need to preserve these destinations for future generations to enjoy. Can we encourage sustainable tourism practices and limit the number of visitors to these sensitive areas? It’s a difficult question to answer, but it’s one that we must grapple with if we hope to protect these precious resources.

• Environmental Damage

As more and more people travel to exotic destinations, the impact on local ecosystems cannot be underestimated. While tourism can provide much-needed economic stimulus to an area, it can also lead to environmental damage if visitors are not conscientious.

Sun tanning on coral reefs can actually bleach and kill these delicate structures, while littering can overwhelm local sanitation systems and pollute waterways. This is especially a problem in southern Bali and neighbouring islands like Flores . It is important for tourists to understand the impact of their actions on the environment and to take steps to minimise their footprint while still enjoying all the beauty and wonder that our planet has to offer.

• Loss of Traditional Cultural Practices

Balinese culture has always been a source of pride and identity for its people. However, with the rise of tourism in recent years, the influx of foreign visitors has brought significant changes to traditional cultural practices.

While tourism has brought economic benefits to the Balinese people, it has also resulted in some traditional practices becoming lost or forgotten. Sadly, many younger Balinese generations do not have the same appreciation or understanding of their cultural heritage as their elders do.

It’s important for us to remember that preserving these customs and traditions is vital in maintaining the unique identity of the Balinese people. The loss of these practices can result in the homogenization of cultures worldwide, which would be a great shame.

• Increase in Prices

As the economy grows, so does the demand for goods and services. However, this surge in demand has also brought with it a rise in prices. Unfortunately, this means that many locals may find it increasingly difficult to afford necessities such as housing, food, and healthcare.

While it’s great to see our economy thriving, it’s important to ensure that no one is left behind. We must work together to find solutions that allow everyone in our community to access the goods and services they need to lead happy and healthy lives.

• Economic Inequality

Economic inequality has become a growing concern in many places around the world, especially in areas like Bali where wealthy tourists flock for their vacations. The trend of these travellers outbidding local residents for available housing and properties has been on the rise, leading to an ever-widening gap between the two groups.

This inequality can have devastating consequences, such as pushing out long-time residents and making it nearly impossible for them to find affordable housing. As a result, locals are left at a significant disadvantage compared to those who have more financial resources.

• Negative Impact on Local Economy

Tourism has undoubtedly provided financial benefits to Bali, but the extent of these gains is debatable. Unfortunately, much of the wealth generated is not finding its way into the hands of local businesses and individuals, which is concerning.

Instead, multinational companies appear to be reaping most of the rewards. This has created a negative impact on the local economy, as Bali is becoming increasingly reliant on outside businesses for revenue.

As a result, the Balinese are struggling to keep their businesses afloat, which can have significant consequences for the island’s overall economic stability. It is vital that Bali’s tourism industry takes a more balanced approach to ensure that both local businesses and multinational corporations benefit from the tourism boom.

What are Three Positive Consequences of Tourism in Bali?

The effects of tourism aren’t all bad and it’s important to recognise the positive impacts as well as the negative ones.

• Boosting Economic Growth

Bali has been experiencing a significant economic growth boost thanks to the surge in tourism. The influx of visitors has brought in tremendous revenue to the local economy, allowing the region to invest heavily in various infrastructure projects.

The island now boasts modern facilities, high-end accommodations, and top-notch dining options, attracting even more tourists to this vibrant location. With the expansion of new attractions, Bali’s economy shows no signs of slowing down, and the local market continues to thrive. There is no denying that tourism has become a crucial driver of economic growth in Bali, bringing with it endless opportunities for progress and development.

• Creating Job Opportunities

Not only does tourism in Bali provide people with a chance to explore new places and cultures, but it also generates job opportunities for locals. The impact of tourism is particularly profound in rural areas where employment options are scarce.

By providing direct jobs such as tour guides, hotel staff, and drivers, as well as indirectly creating jobs through the demand for local products and services, tourism plays a vital role in sustaining local economies.

• Spreading Cultural Awareness

As tourists flock to new destinations, they bring with them a desire to experience the local culture, to see and understand what makes a place unique. This desire to learn creates opportunities for locals to share their traditions, arts, and crafts with a broader audience, enabling a cultural exchange that benefits everyone involved.

Through tourism, visitors gain a deeper appreciation for the local way of life, while locals are able to showcase the best of their communities and preserve their cultural heritage. It’s a win-win scenario that enhances local culture while creating lasting connections between people from around the world.

About the Author

Victoria is a travel blogger and writer from Germany who now calls Bali her permanent home. She works full-time on her two travel blogs www.guideyourtravel.com  and www.myaustraliatrip.com  and her sites aim to provide helpful and realistic travel advice.

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The impacts of tourism in bali.

I’ve got a love-hate relationship with Bali. On one hand, it’s a beautiful island with amazing scenery, lovely locals and an intriguing Hindu culture. On the other, it’s suffocatingly touristy, can feel very inauthentic and has some real problems that are arguably worsened by mass tourism.

Bali has spectacular sunsets and gorgeous views, but it is arguable that a) you’ll be sharing your experience with thousands of other tourists and b) that the way tourism in Bali is set up inadvertedly negatively impacts people there, even if it is not meant to.

Now, I’m not against tourists in Bali – I was a tourist in Bali, after all. I’m against the way tourism in Bali is executed, which has caused a beautiful island to become a tourist trap. After spending five weeks in Bali, I saw some amazing sights. I climbed up Mount Batur, snorkeled in Nusa Penida and explored the rice fields of Ubud and Canggu.

However, I still felt kind of uncomfortable there. Because a lot of the time, you can’t escape the mass tourism of the island, and as a responsible traveler , it left me thinking about the real impact that I had by being there.

The Positive Impacts of Tourism in Bali

Tourism has brought a lot more jobs to the island, many of which are paid better than other opportunities. Balinese employment is now varied, with some people opting to own guesthouses and others doing their own tours of the island. Generally, most Balinese people I spoke to were optimistic about tourism because of the range of employment options that are now available to them. Many Balinese and other Indonesian people have moved to the tourist hotspots to work and send money back to their families.

Economic Advantages

Tourists bring money, and when it’s spent in the right place, it helps the Balinese economy. Because many tourists to Bali are in ‘holiday mode’, they’ll often spend a sizable amount on food, drinks, and shopping. When spent in the right places, this helps the individuals who run the restaurants, guesthouses cafes, etc. Furthermore, as their money is often spent within Bali it strengthens the economy of the island and Indonesia as a whole.

Meeting Foreigners and Sharing Cultures

Globalisation is both good and bad. In a positive light, tourism to Bali has helped locals learn about other countries and has opened them up to the possibilities of remote or international work. Meeting people from all over the globe has amazing advantages, as we can all learn from each other in so many ways, and many people in Bali who aren’t even in the travel industry are now doing a different job, thanks to tourism.

The Negative Impacts of Tourism in Bali

Even without the growing westernization of Bali, it is crazily busy. Bali has a huge population anyway, and then when you take into account the thousands of tourists who descend on the island each year and Indonesians who have moved to the island to work in the tourist industry, you’ve got an island that’s about to sink.

Busyness isn’t something that many people favour when they want a beach break and yes, sometimes you’ll struggle to get a good spot on some of the busier beaches in Bali. But overpopulation has some bigger concerns, especially in places as small as Bali. More people means more traffic (it once took me an hour to drive five kilometres), more development – which can affect the environment – and sadly, more rubbish.

Plastic Pollution

It is no secret that Indonesia has a plastic problem . Not much on the island gets recycled, and because everywhere is so close to the sea, that’s where it ends up – very quickly. It’s easy to forget about the huge plastic crisis that the world is experiencing when we’re offered a straw or a plastic bag – but when visiting Bali or anywhere else in the world (particularly coastal destinations) we really need to be helping the solution, not contributing to it. Sadly, more tourists mean more plastic cups and straws, and more trash in the ocean. I’m not very comfortable contributing to this.

There are also other environmental impacts of tourism on Bali, like the growing need of accommodation options for wiping out protected natural areas. This disrupts the ecosystem and could create a lot of problems for Bali in the long run.

The Dark Side of Bali

Tourism has also introduced some less than desirable qualities to Bali – prostitution, and subsequently, human trafficking is on the rise. The introduction of tourists has also seen the introduction of drugs, which have the death penalty for in Indonesia. You can learn more about these issues – and how to help to prevent them – at Dark Bali .

Economic Leakage

While tourism in Bali has brought more money, a lot of the time it only benefits the owners – who are often foreign. Staff of these big companies are typically not paid that much, and most of the money goes into the wealthy owner’s pocket, who may be from Britain, Australia, the US or any other country – generally a wealthier one than Indonesia. This means that the impacts of these businesses to the Balinese are mainly negative – business is taken away from local competitors, land is taken up, and prices are hiked up for locals.

Cultural Suppression

Balinese culture is one of the main reasons that I love the place. But, due to the overtourism, culture is being more and more suppressed – and it’s really sad. This is one of the negative effects of globalisation – tourists who come to Bali and treat it as their own place, without paying attention to the Balinese way of life, are really wrecking the traditions here. This is a problem all over the world, but out of everywhere I’ve visited I noticed it especially in Bali.

Is Bali Worth Visiting?

Everything being said, I still love Bali, and I still will go back to Bali. I just want to promote the right kind of Bali tourism. There are ways that we can increase the positive impacts of tourism in Bali and decrease the negatives. How? I’ll tell ya…

• Eat at local warungs – not only are these restaurants delicious, and have good vegan and vegetarian options, but they are locally run so the money goes back to the owner, which is normally a family. The prices here are a lot cheaper than what you’ll pay in western restaurants as well. Plus, Indonesian food is great and caters for most dietary restrictions .
• Stay in homestays when possible – Bali is dotted with these. Some are basically locally run hotels, others are local homes. As long as it’s run by Balinese people, it will help them out.
• Take taxi drivers’  tours – many drivers do this as another way of earning an income and find it more enjoyable than driving different people around all day. They are really flexible with their tours and will take you to less touristy places if you ask. If there’s a few of you in the car, it’s a great deal.
• Cut your use of plastic – take reusable straws (you can buy some here), resuable coffee cups (click here to buy) and reusable bags (here’s some)
• Get to know the Balinese people! – English is quite widely spoken in Bali, and the locals are lovely people. They’re always down for a chat, and will love to share their culture and traditions with you.
• See traditional shows – Balinese dance shows are easy to come across, especially in Ubud. There are lots of other ceremonies and rituals, some which tourists are allowed to watch. Having an interest in these keeps them alive.
• Learn about the history and religion of the island – you can do this by visiting some of the many temples in Bali  and chatting to locals about their spirituality and beliefs.
• Head to some less explored places of the island – these areas will be quiet and calm, and a place to experience ‘real’ Bali. You’ll be able to meet some locals here and stay in a homestay.
• AVOID big companies that obviously have their roots in other countries. This includes multi-national hotels, some beach clubs and foreign restaurants and bars.
• Get involved in ethical volunteering, read up about some of Bali’s issues and spread the word about what we can be doing to help. I highly recommend ‘Under the Volcano – The Story of Bali’ ( purchase it here )  to get a good understanding of the island’s history.

Have you visited Bali? What did you think of it? For more ethical travel posts, subscribe to Claire’s Footsteps or follow me on Facebook!

19 thoughts on “ The Impacts of Tourism in Bali ”

Thumbs up Claire for seeing what is happening. Bali by now stinks and sinks under mass tourism who treat the island & take up land as if it IS theirs. Then too, this cannot happen if tourism development is a well balanced arm of government. Alas, it’s AGAIN a corrupt money game, misused by government & foreign investors and overused by long & short terms tourism wrecking it even further. At least most of them.

Thanks for the comment Elisa. I know, it’s really sad and it’s such a beautiful culture that’s being oppressed 🙁 I will still visit Bali, however, and support all of the local businesses and cultures that I love there. I hope you can still find some beauty in the island as well!

I first went to Bali 24.years ago. I then went 9 years ago and again recently. My opinion is that Bali is sinking as you say under the consequence of mass tourism. Attitudes of the Balinese have changed in a negative sense towards tourists. They desire a better life for themselves and their families which is human nature. The main worry of recent is that they can now obtain credit from lenders relatively easily, thus there is more traffic on the roads. I noticed a huge amount of new scooters and cars. They are paying up to 40% interest, private investors can obtain over 20% interest. What would happen if there was a natural disaster like an earthquake or volcanic eruption? Total collapse of the infrastructure leading to the end of tourism for an unknown period of time. These are very worrisome times and I don’t see a solution.

I enjoyed reading your post Claire. My family are visiting Bali in a few weeks and I am using your site to help my IGCSE Geography students understand the good things and bad things about international tourism. Well done

That’s great to hear Neil, I’m glad it’s helping! Thanks a lot for your comment 🙂

Wonderful Post. Really, this is the perfect case study for analyzing how tourism impacts indonesia.

Thanks Prakriti!

Thank your for your attention in bali tourism impact. i am a balinese born and rise in rich culture area of ubud and i can say that all your writing are correct. nowadays beside cultural degradation because of mass tourism we also face a land use change where more and more rice field and riverside, green area were change to villa, hotel and other tourism facility. many of balinese aren’t aware of current change, there are feel more satisfied with evoluiton of thing because its easier to make money from tourism. *sorry for my english

Hi Nyoman, it’s great to hear from a local and thanks for your encouraging comment. Yes I completely agree, industries are changing fast in Bali but that doesn’t necessarily convenience everyone and it definitely should be taken more into account. If you have any more ideas about how tourists in Bali can be more sustainable please do drop me an email at [email protected] , it would be great to get some local perspectives in this post. Also your English is really good! My Indonesian is very bad but I try to speak some words when I’m there and I really like the language 🙂

Hmm yes, interesting.

I found your work to be very helpful with my English tourism assignment, Thanks

Glad to hear that!

GIad to hear that!

I am a Balinese born in Kuta and yes these tourism problems are a great deal in my area.

This really helped me a lot thank you!!??

You’re welcome!

Thank you Claire for your analysis..I use this in my geography class to discuss the impacts of tourism industry in Bali..

Glad to hear this is helpful! 🙂

Comments are closed.

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• Edition 102: Oct-Dec 2010

Bali’s pandemic, its impacts and legacies

Jemma purdey.

In February 2022, Bali’s international border reopened after almost two years. Long-awaited and warmly welcomed by most on the island whose livelihoods are so deeply connected to the dominant tourism industry, there is also a level of concern and trepidation. The sudden and prolonged halt to an ever-increasing flow of international visitors into Bali, whilst devastating for tourism and the economy at large, has forced many to reflect upon and rethink the over-dependency on this sector and its social and environmental impacts.

Compared to its neighbouring island Java, Bali has to date avoided a large-scale COVID-19 health crisis due to its high vaccination rates and adherence to social-distancing and other health protections. However, the pandemic induced international border closures and restrictions on mobility meant that Bali’s economy was most likely the hit hardest in all of Indonesia. The raw numbers are stark and extraordinary. In 2019 Bali welcomed over six million international visitors, in 2020 this number was just over one million, and in 2021 only 45 international visitors arrived directly in to Bali. It is estimated that prior to the pandemic around 70 per cent of the economy was linked to tourism and over half of all jobs.

As Anton Muhajir details in his article in this edition, when compared to past crises, including the 2002 Bali Bombings and 2017 Mt Agung eruption, the economic and social impact of the pandemic has been unprecedented - a prolonged period of being closed off from a global market upon which Bali had become so intrinsically, if not totally, connected and dependent.

All of our contributors to this edition lived in Bali during the pandemic. We invited them to reflect on their experiences, on how they, their neighbours and organisations have faced the challenges brought by the economic and health crisis; how communities have remained connected and individuals have found a way through.

Nicodemus Freddy Hadiyanto puts faces to the numbers, sharing stories from his neighbours and friends who, like so many, found themselves out of work and with no idea when the tourists would return. Whilst some are looking forward to Bali’s reopening and returning to their pre-pandemic employment, many others, through necessity, grit and ingenuity have found new paths and new livelihoods away from tourism and do not expect to go back.

In their essays Paul Walters and Suzy Hutomo reveal how the pandemic has exposed Bali’s complex predicament – long known, but until this crisis perhaps conveniently overlooked – whereby the very beauty and relaxed living for which Bali is famous is under constant threat due to the ever-larger numbers of tourists who come to experience it. As the wonderful photos from Syamsul Sofian accompanying Hutomo’s essay show us, in their absence nature has reclaimed parts of the island and wildlife has returned.

Likewise, Sue Useem’s article on Bali’s much-loved dogs reminds us of the close relationship between human and animal in Balinese culture. Pandemic restrictions created challenges for organisations caring for these dogs, but re-connecting with their local communities during this time has given rise to youth-led grassroots animal welfare efforts that offer much hope for the dogs' future wellbeing.

Fransiska Prihadi and Iko Amadeus and Ni Nyoman Clara Listya Dewi share their experiences with organisations dedicated to helping locals maintain connections across their fractured communities. Their efforts to bring people together digitally and in COVID-safe ways in-person focused on warding off isolation and fear born of a lack of information about the virus, and the importance of continuing to foster cultural activity.

Across the articles in this edition the role of local and national government is ever-present, either as an enforcer of rules, public health protector or aid-giver, but in all cases with varying levels of efficacy and relevance. The stories told here demonstrate the centrality of community-led resilience and ingenuity in response to Bali’s pandemic crisis.

The pandemic has forced the people of Bali – like all of us – to reflect on what is important. To take stock. As the island begins to welcome visitors back in the coming months and years it remains to be seen what has been learnt from this period of pause. Will Bali return to the way it was before March 2020? We join our contributor Hadiyanto in posing the question, ‘Bali, where are you heading?’

Jemma Purdey is commissioning editor of Inside Indonesia.

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A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.

In a year without tourism, Bali went back to 'the old ways of living'

The global shock of the coronavirus pandemic has forced Bali to confront an uncomfortable truth — its economy is addicted to tourism.

In calm waters between the islands of Ceningan and Lembongan, off the east coast of Bali, an old way of life has returned.

Seaweed farms had all but disappeared from the Ceningan Strait over the past decade as Bali's tourism boom finally reached this sleepy island chain.

Now the tourists are gone and the farms have sprung up again, stretching out over sandy shoals in checker-board patches.

Once locals toiled day and night in the sun and salt water, but they abandoned the farms for more lucrative jobs in tourism.

With the villas, resorts and restaurants lining the foreshore now empty and boarded up, a question lingers over these islands.

Will tourism ever return exactly as it was before the pandemic — and do Balinese people even want it to?

Wayan Wira Candra's parents never intended for him to join the family business. They had bigger dreams for their son than toiling waist-deep in the Ceningan Strait, working a backbreaking job for meagre wages as they did.

They started seaweed farming in the mid 80s but like many Indonesian families, encouraged their son to set his sights over the Badung Strait to Bali as a pathway to a better future.

In 2005, Wayan enrolled in a three-year course at a Bali tourism school, eventually snagging a dream job in one of the main island's big hotels.

"Since a long time ago, many young people were enthusiastic about working in tourism," says Wayan, now a 35-year-old father of three.

"Before the pandemic they thought it was very promising. It was very rare for people to be interested in seaweed farming."

Back then, Ceningan, Lembongan and the larger neighbouring island of Penida were together one of Bali's best kept tourism secrets, a quiet oasis away from the crammed laneways of Kuta and Seminyak.

For island hoppers willing to look beyond the usual tourist haunts of mainland Bali, they offered easy exploration, uncrowded surfing breaks, virgin dive sites and a more chilled atmosphere.

But for the locals, the opportunities to make a good living were still sparse.

"Besides being a seaweed farmer, you couldn't do anything," says Wayan.

"So that's why my dream was to move my family from here to Bali. If I'm successful, I'm having a house and everything.

"People were proud to be able to live in Bali."

But around a decade ago, change came suddenly. Bali's decades-long tourism boom arrived in Ceningan and Lembongan and these secluded islands were a secret no more.

"Tourism started to explode, more people were coming in than live here," says Wayan. "It was crazy."

Now married and raising a young family, Wayan looked back across the water to his home island as the opportunity to pursue his tourism dreams.

Just over a year ago, at the peak of the boom, Wayan and his wife Riza borrowed money and poured their life savings into a holiday bungalow in Lembongan. Riza would manage the business while Wayan earned a stable wage in a high-end resort.

They had hardly welcomed their first guest when COVID struck.

"After the pandemic hit us, we were in the throes," he says. "What should we do to be able to survive?"

The answer would reveal just how much Wayan and the people of his islands had come to rely on a seemingly endless stream of visitors to Bali: "We had no choice but to go back to nature."

From the Nusa Lembongan beachfront, the thin outline of Bali's coast is faintly visible across the water, framed by the tempestuous Mount Agung looming behind.

It's hard to imagine the mainland once felt so far away.

Aussie expat Troy Sinclair has spent the last 18 years on Nusa Lembongan building a hotel business with his wife Aleesa and remembers when the distance seemed to suddenly shrink with the arrival of the first fast ferry.

"The accessibility of Lembongan turned from being a one-and-half-hour trip on a jukung to literally being a half-hour trip out of Sanur to the beachside here," says Troy.

Before that there had been just one boat off the island at 7:30am and anyone who missed it was stuck for another night.

Soon the number of fast-boat operators grew to over 20, all running up to four scheduled trips a day with multiple boats ferrying thousands of day trippers and holidaymakers across from the mainland.

With the influx of tourists came a boom in new jobs. Locals were soon clamouring for their piece of the economic expansion.

"Parents were putting the kids into the hospitality schools to give them ... a better life than what they had," said Troy.

"More and more families either had their sons and daughters working in tourism, or they've set up their own restaurants, or their own motorbike hire, or their own snorkelling tours."

The patchwork of seaweed farms carpeting the sandy strait started to disappear, until a few years ago they were all but gone.

Like mainland Bali, these islands were now hooked on tourist dollars. The old way of life seemed like it might fade for good.

For a seaweed farmer, every day is a race against the incoming tide.

Rising waters soon put a stop to harvesting in the shallows, or setting the poles and ropes for the plantation rows of green and brown.

There are no rostered shift times in this job; work patterns are dictated by the rise and fall of the seas.

When the tides demand it, Wayan wades into the underwater plantations at night under the light of torches, groping in dark waters.

With the survival of each crop at the mercy of the elements, scratching a living in seaweed farming means never being sure of your next pay cheque.

Each day for the past year, Wayan has walked down tumbled stone steps over the sandy shore to work his family's seaweed patch out in the bay.

The seaweed he plucks from the "tali pokok" — or main rope — is hauled away in traditional boats and large baskets for drying. It's then sent to Java for processing to make products ranging from sushi to cosmetics and medicines.

"Seaweed is very good for health. But the way to harvest it, is not so healthy," said Wayan.

Everywhere the fishy smell of seaweed drying in the sun hangs in the air.

It's exhausting work and for far less pay than Wayan is accustomed to. Before the pandemic shuttered the resort where he worked, Wayan was taking home nearly $800 a month in tourism. Now it's less than $200 a month from seaweed farming.

But it covers his basic needs and provides for his family.

"When I get home and see my baby's smile, my tiredness is gone. That's more important," he says.

Most of the twin-islands' 6000 residents have been impacted by Bali's tourism shutdown but many have been able to turn back to making a living from the sea to stave off financial disaster.

It was not so long ago that people in Ceningan and Lembongan relied on the farms for their incomes, so young tourism workers have been able to relearn the aquaculture skills alongside the older generations.

The crisis has in many ways brought the community together. Families have divided the plots across the channel so everyone gets a space to work, Wayan says. Not everyone across Bali has been so fortunate.

"We are still proud of this island because we still survive from seaweed farming," says a worker out in the channel. "In the city, no jobs. It's like, game over."

Before COVID forced international travel to come to a grinding halt, more than half of Bali's economy relied directly on tourism.

Officials had predicted up to seven million travellers would come to Bali in 2020 — then the world went into lockdown.

Bali has suffered shocks to its tourism industry before, like the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2017 eruption of Mount Agung, which temporarily slashed tourist numbers. But the COVID-19 pandemic slammed the door shut, hitting the island harder than ever before.

Unemployment is now rampant and many workers rely on food handouts, or sembako, to get by, especially in the popular tourist spots in Bali's south.

The Indonesian government provided an initial hit of economic relief but with few social safety nets to fall back on, many Balinese have been forced to flee tourist towns and return to the rural villages in the north looking for work.

"People who sell massage, or merchandise on the beach, I heard they all went back home to their villages," says Bali lifeguard Marcello Aryafara, as he keeps watch over the empty waves at Kuta.

"It's a very sad situation because many were friends of mine, and I don't see them around. I hope they are OK, I hope they are doing alright."

While the pandemic has wrought economic chaos, it's also come with a silver lining. The pause on visitors has come as a warning for Bali to wean itself off over-reliance on the flow of tourist dollars.

Local businesswoman Christia Dharmawan, who runs events at her family's venue Kebon Vintage, is part of a growing movement for economic diversification in Bali. She believes the pandemic has been a "wake-up call" exposing the need to "go back to loving our island and make sure people don't abuse it".

"We realised that we cannot just depend on one industry and we have to develop all the other industries that actually have great potential for sustainability and resilience in the future," she says.

The pandemic has created space for officials to confront some of the societal problems plaguing Bali after decades of tourism-fuelled development.

Basic infrastructure like roads, water and the electricity have struggled to keep pace with the relentless urban expansion into areas that were recently just farmland, while plastic pollution has clogged the island's rivers and sullied its beaches.

Environmental groups like Sungai Watch have used the shutdown to ramp up efforts to clean up Bali's notoriously polluted rivers.

"This is like the perfect time and people want to push reset on Bali before we go back to tourism," says Sungai Watch's founder Gary Bencheghib.

The costs of over-tourism have been all the more keenly felt because locals saw the profits going offshore.

The Balinese Tourism Board estimates up to 70 per cent of the money spent in Bali leaves the island, a problem exacerbated by the lack of local schools to provide locals with the skills to compete.

There's a push on to secure greater equity for local operators. When visitors eventually return, Bali's Vice Governor Cok Ace wants to develop sustainable tourism and bring a greater share of the profits to Balinese people.

"Tourism has to bring benefit to Balinese society," he says. "We want everyone to be peaceful in Bali and we don't want them to ruin our environment."

For now, the resorts of Nusa Lembongan are empty shells, awaiting a new wave of tourists.

The return of visitors can't come soon enough for those who went all-in on tourism during the boom times.

But even out in these islands where locals had an economic fall-back in seaweed farming, there's talk of change when business comes roaring back.

Troy Sinclair is looking forward to the day his hotel will again be full of guests and the dozens of locals he employed can return to stable work.

"I think Bali was suffering under its own success and to some extent, it wasn't its fault," says Troy.

"I think during Bali's recent peak, it was definitely the beginning of awareness of what types of tourism Bali needs and how to properly look after new tourism locations.

"When it comes back, I think there will be change. I think it would be naive to say it won't change."

For Wayan, Bali's "new normal" has been a time to reconnect with his island and "the old way of living".

Furloughed tourism workers like him, who turned to farming and subsistence fishing, will likely resume their old jobs when the time comes.

The question will be whether this time, when tourists seek out these islands, the old ways can be kept alive — or whether the farms will once again disappear from the bay.

"We have become aware that in the future we should not glorify only one sector of work," says Wayan

"If later everything returns to normal, we must be able to balance tourism with the natural way of life that exists here."

Watch Foreign Correspondent's 'The Year Bali Tourism Stopped' on YouTube .

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Beauty of Bali under threat from pressures of mass tourism

F or years Bali , the pearl among the Sunda Islands, has been touted as an earthly paradise, thanks to the its tropical landscapes, its white sandy beaches, the tormented beauty of its Hindu temples and its inhabitants' reputation for kindness and tolerance.

But this idyllic spot may soon be a thing of the past, with the threat of Bali – population 3.5 million – changing beyond recognition, a prey to the accumulated effects of mass tourism, unbridled consumption of resources and environmental collapse.

"From the 1970s onwards Bali really became a tourist destination," says Wayan Suardana, head of Walhisimilan, a conservation group campaigning for the environment. "But to begin with it was mainly cultural tourism. Now we are seeing mass tourism. And that's a problem."

Hundreds of hotels use up a large share of freshwater reserves, with each four-star room consuming 300 litres a day. "By 2015 Bali could be facing a drinking water crisis," Suardana says.

More than a million visitors came to Bali in 2001. The figures for 2011 suggest that numbers have more than doubled since, ultimately unaffected by the 2002 terror attack , which left 202 dead, including many Australians. Every year 700 hectares of land is lost to hotels, luxury housing for rich foreigners or just roads to improve connections on the island. Every day some 13,000 cubic metres of waste is dumped on public tips and only half is recycled. With 13% more cars on the roads every year, the steadily increasing traffic causes massive jams.

In an attempt to mitigate the ill effects of mass tourism on the local Hindu culture – an exception in largely Muslim Indonesia – the authorities have introduced environmental legislation. One of its provisions makes it compulsory for resorts to be set back at least 150 metres from beaches, with no hotels within 5km of Hindu temples.

So far this initiative has made no difference. Efforts to decentralise government in Indonesia – a patchwork of 17,000 islands with a population of 240 million – have given a disproportionate share of power to the bupati (elected high sheriffs), who run areas roughly equivalent to a British county. The bupati are not in favour of the new law. "The law on environmental protection has been passed but the bupati, who have financial interests and are hand-in-glove with property developers, have done all they can to prevent the law from being enforced," alleges the deputy leader of Bali's regional assembly, Ketut Adnyana.

"Local leaders have no long-term perspective," he adds. "They want a quick return on investments and tourism allows that. The irony is that one day, when development has reached a certain level, visitors will no longer find what they seek here."

In January 2011, the governor of Bali, Made Mangku Pastika, issued a ban on new buildings in heavily developed areas, warning that Bali was in danger of becoming a sterile land bristling with concrete. The ban is far from popular with investors.

"Tourism is partly due to the attraction of our culture: if mass tourism develops in a way that threatens our culture, we will lose our specific attraction," says Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, head of the Bali tourist board and the owner of a hotel at Sanur, a prime destination.

"We have used culture as merchandise," says poet and theatre director Ketut Yuliarsa, a native of Ubud. He is horrified by the turn of events. "The Balinese are deeply attached to their religion and culture: they spend a lot of time in the temples and respect the ritual. But mass tourism has upset such practices: the diversity of local cultures and the specific character of certain rites are being harmonised. Foreigners are offered a standardised package," the poet explains.

It is all the more difficult to halt such trends, because the travel trade does have a positive side. "People are better off, living standards have improved. Many Balinese are unaware of the changes going on," Yuliarsa says.

"Four-fifths of Balinese society is deeply committed to daily worship," says Audrey Lamou, who headed the Alliance Française on the island for several years. "But some youths, who must pay a form of monetary compensation to their village when they cannot attend ritual gatherings, are fed up with such strict rules."

At the same time, "the Balinese are increasingly obsessed with easy money," Lamou says. "Institutions such as gamelans [musical ensembles] are dying out and the Balinese language is gradually losing ground to the official language of Indonesia. With such massive changes it sometimes looks as if, in cultural terms, the population is heading for disaster."

Compared with other holiday venues in south-east Asia, Bali has retained much of its magic, at least in the areas so far spared by mass tourism. But if nothing is done to halt current trends, it may suffer the same fate as other dream destinations.

This article originally appeared in Le Monde

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How Bali could build a better kind of tourism after the pandemic

Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Leisure, Bournemouth University

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Rick Stafford receives research funding from Interreg Europe and the Earthwatch Foundation

Jaeyeon Choe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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COVID-19 has hit tourism-reliant destinations hard . The Indonesian island of Bali, for example, where 70% of the population depend on tourism , has seen extensive job and income losses since it closed its borders in April.

The economic impact so far has been greater than that of the Bali bombings of 2002, with losses of around 9.7 trillion rupiah (about £551.3 million) a month.

In the past, the island’s image as a peaceful paradise with a rich cultural and religious heritage has made it a highly resilient tourist destination. Bali recovered swiftly in the wake of past crises, both natural and man made, including the Gulf War (1990), a cholera outbreak (1995), Sars (2003) and bird flu (2007).

But without significant investment and diversification, there are widespread concerns that this crisis could be different .

A different approach may now be needed to save the tourism industry – and to make sure its benefits are more evenly spread. We believe that now is the time to adjust the model in Bali away from surf, parties, and yoga towards rural villages with high poverty rates across the island (especially the underdeveloped north-east).

To do this, government support is required to build small-scale tourism that will provide new livelihoods. This might include everything from dolphin watching and snorkelling trips, to food tourism and “experience tourism” focused on traditional fishing and farming.

Read more: African tourism has been put on ice by coronavirus – here's how some countries are reviving it

That support does not necessarily need to be in the form of cash. When we interviewed small-business representatives in Bali last year, they called not for financial subsidies, but for marketing training and access to tourism-research data.

As one entrepreneur told us: “Many local creative businesses are managed as informal family businesses. They lack knowledge in professional management and marketing skills.”

He also spoke of the need for improved collaboration between IT experts, business consultants, local universities and policymakers.

Yet there are important risks to consider when attempting to build a new kind of tourism. “Authentic” experiences can often be manufactured by large businesses, preventing regional economic development (other than occasional low-paid work) in the most deprived areas.

And without investment in tourist infrastructure, it would be too easy for tourists to prefer the manufactured version over the true “authenticity” on offer from local communities. Carefully considered investment, however, could lead to sustainable development.

According to Dr Luh Putu Mahyuni, a sustainable business consultant and economist at Undiknas University: “The pandemic provides a wake up call for Bali to foster […] new types of tourism such as gastronomic tourism.”

She told a webinar we hosted in May: “The tourism sector needs to develop products with other sectors so as to create a more resilient and sustainable economy.”

To boost that economy, the island should also consider a tourist tax, while reducing taxes on small-scale home-stays, and better regulating the presence of Airbnb. It also needs to restrict foreign ownership of property, limit destruction of viable farmland and limit business sizes in the south of the island.

An island of opportunity

Notwithstanding all the devastation it has caused, COVID-19 has given the world an opportunity to pause and reflect on how things may change in its aftermath . The tourism industry in Bali (and many other places) is no exception.

For tourism is often seen as a solution to all kinds of problems, from economics to conservation. But as our research has shown, unless tourist money is kept in the local community, the benefits do not materialise .

And besides the major financial concerns on Bali, and the need for a tourism-led recovery, the authorities must also face up to deeply entrenched levels of structural inequality. Poverty, homelessness and dispossession existed long before the pandemic.

The island must learn from what happened 18 years ago, when the bombings led to job losses and increased rates of depression, alcoholism and crime . And we hope that Bali can use the current crisis as an opportunity to look at the causes of such social problems, rather than the symptoms . To move on and build a more resilient island, where responsible tourism plays a major role in alleviating poverty.

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The tourism boom in bali: is it harming prospects for long-term economic growth.

Abstract Tourism now dominates the regional economy of Bali, and its direct economic benefits are demonstrably large. However, Bali’s tourism focused development strategy has been criticized for some of its social, cultural and environmental effects, and for potentially hampering sustainable long-term growth through ‘Dutch disease’ effects of tourism boom on other more dynamic tradable sectors, particularly manufacturing. In this paper, we discuss the economic effects of tourism on overall growth, structural change, employment and wages, household and spatial distributional effects, and potential for technological change and longer-term growth. We show that tourism has promoted a complex web of interactions with other industries, and contributed to rapid structural change, skills development and the widespread dissemination and application of information technology. We contend that the application of the conventional Dutch disease model can be misleading in assessing the economic impact of tourist growth in Bali. It is important to recognize that (a) Bali is a regional economy within the much larger national economy of Indonesia, with high levels of integration in both factor (including labour) and product markets, and (b) tourism is a very dynamic export industry, operating in a highly competitive and rapidly changing international market, and requiring increasingly sophisticated managerial and entrepreneurial skills. While many of the negative socio-cultural and environmental effects are serious and must be addressed through appropriate regulatory regimes, they are not very different from effects seen in other economies undergoing rapid growth. Our overall assessment is that tourism, based on Bali’s natural, cultural and economic endowments, is a viable alternative to labour-intensive industrialization and demonstrates that ‘services based growth strategy’ can be quite appropriate in some circumstances.

Key words: Bali, Indonesia, growth, structural change, tourism, Dutch disease

JEL Codes: F15, J62, 014, 015, 018

Updated:   28 April 2024 / Responsible Officer:   Crawford Engagement / Page Contact:   CAP Web Team

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How mass tourism is destroying Bali and its culture

Locals say bali could soon be unrecognisable as an idyllic location due to the cumulated effects of mass tourism, frenzied consumption and an ecological disaster..

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Old ways survive in Bali despite mass tourism, but for how long?

Indonesian island with its unique religion and culture is preparing for Nyepi, the day when everything shuts.

Bali, Indonesia – At dawn, as the first shards of light dance over the rice fields in the seaside village of Seseh on Bali’s west coast, Putu and her husband Made, who like many Indonesians go by one name only, spend an hour reciting prayers and distributing small palm leaf baskets containing offerings to ensure the health of the coming harvest.

Later in the day, their 11-year-old daughter will attend a class for “sanghyang dedari”, a sacred trance dance for girls that is designed to counteract negative supernatural forces.

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Meanwhile, her two older brothers will hone their skills on wooden xylophones and hand drums as part of a traditional “gamelan” orchestra in preparation for a ceremony celebrating the completion of a new Hindu temple, one of more than 10,000 on the island.

In the coming weeks, Made and his children will help their neighbours create giant “ogoh-ogoh” dolls, representations of evil mythological creatures fashioned from wood, bamboo, paper and styrofoam, that will be paraded through the streets and set alight the night before Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu new year.

Taking place this year on March 11, Nyepi, or the “day of silence”, will see every light on the island turned off, transport come to a halt and the airport close. Everyone, Balinese or not, will stay at home to give evil spirits the impression there is nothing to be found on the island.

“Every day I lay offerings, attend a ceremony or go to a temple,” Putu told Al Jazeera. “I do this because I am Hindu, because I believe. My children do the same and when they have children, they will do the same also.”

The Balinese anomaly

Putu’s hopes for the future are shared with the vast majority of Balinese, an island where a hybrid Hindu-Buddhist religion based on ancestor worship and animism dating back to the first century has survived and even thrived in the face of mass tourism.

By 1930, tourist numbers reached several hundred per year. Last year, 5.2 million foreigners along with 9.4 million domestic holidaymakers visited Bali, according to government data, and the island is developing at breakneck speed to cater to the demand.

The negative effects of such tremendous growth are illustrated in the murals of Balinese artist Slinat, who marries the iconic photographs of Balinese dancers with contemporary emblems like gas masks and dollar bills.

“These old photos were the first images used to promote tourism in Bali and convey that it is an exotic place. They kick-started tourism in Bali,” Slinat told Al Jazeera. “But then we had too much tourism and it ruined the exoticness of Bali. So I created this parody to express how much things have changed here since those photos were taken.”

Nevertheless, Balinese traditional culture and religion have remained resilient in the face of the tourist onslaught, which is something of an anomaly compared with other tourist hot spots around the world.

“When local people entertain tourists, they adapt [to] tourists’ needs, attitudes and values and ultimately start to follow them. By following tourists’ lifestyle, young people bring changes in the material goods,” was the finding of a study on the impact of tourism on culture that was published in 2016 in the Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Sports.

The study said the Pokhara-Ghandruk community in Nepal was a textbook example, where “the traditional fashion, behaviour and lifestyle of young Gurungs have been severely affected by tourism … [who] disobey their elders’ Kinship titles”. It said Indonesia was an exception – a country where “to attract distant tourists, children nurture local customs to create a strong and authentic base of cultural components without disrupting ancestors’ values”.

A lecturer in traditional architecture at Warmadewa University in Bali, I Nyoman Gede Maha Putra explains the roots of that approach.

“Colonial government policies dating back to the 1930s that promote how the Balinese should be Balinese, including school curriculums, production of traditional foods and beverages and unsparing investments in religious buildings have played a key role in preserving culture and religion on the so-called Island of the Gods,” he said, adding that construction codes formalised in the 1970s that required no new building to be no taller than a coconut tree had helped maintain “a sense of the place” on the island.

“Soon, all our young people will start making ogoh-ogoh paper statues for Nyepi. No one will be left out. They will enjoy the process, they will enjoy the parades, and feel proud when the tourists see what they’ve made. And our daily ceremonies will continue because we believe very strongly that our ancestors’ ghosts live around us and our ceremonies are the only way we can communicate with them,” Maha Putra said.

Others say it is the adaptability of Balinese culture that has made it resilient.

“Balinese culture is not static,” I Ketut Putra Erawan, a lecturer in political science at Bali’s Udayana University,  told Al Jazeera. “Time and time again it has shown it has the power to reinvent itself through the problems and opportunities we face; things like tourism, social media, individualism, capitalism and mass culture. It finds new ways to make itself relevant to young people in new times.”

But these new shapes and expressions are not as solid as those of the past, he cautions.

“Today we are flooded with so much information and misinformation, and what that tends to do is promote the skin of the culture, the outside element of the culture, things like consumerism and fashion, but not the core of the culture,” Erawan said. “Many people prioritise the wrong things in their cultural expressions. They are much more interested in dressing like Balinese and telling everyone on social media they are Balinese instead of obtaining the high level of knowledge needed to understand our complex culture and religion.”

Rio Helmi, an Indonesian photographer whose work focuses on the interaction between Indigenous peoples and their environment, agrees.

He fears time is working against Balinese culture.

“As to the strength of the culture, I think there is some truth to that,” he told Al Jazeera. “But a lot of it is about identity rather than involvement in the deeper side of the culture and its values. What I am seeing now feels more like form over function. People always repeat the phrase ‘tri hita karana’ – maintaining a good relationship between man and God, man and nature, man and the environment – but often it feels like a slogan, a bandage to cover up bad things like people building on sacred land. We have to be careful about making generalisations as there are still many people who live traditionally. But the power of money is everywhere.”

Today, multi-storey hotels and condominiums many times taller than coconut trees are popping up across the island’s traditional rice fields. However the biggest display of the disparity between form and function, Helmi says, will be on display during the ogah-ogah procession in Ubud, the spiritual heart of Bali that has expanded from a sleepy cultural village into a bustling tourist hotspot, where there will be loudspeakers, souvenir vendors and bandstands.

“It will be a real show put on for tourists, whereas in the villages the events will be about introspection, the sense of the year coming to an end and chasing the demons out. It is their moment, their culture. It is not a show,” Helmi said.

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It’s been a rough two years for most of the world with the coronavirus pandemic decimating global economies and leaving nations reliant on tourism floundering.

And few have been impacted as heavily as our beloved Bali — one of Australia’s most favourite places to escape to pre-pandemic.

Before the pandemic brought international travel to a grinding halt and countries slammed their borders shut, more than 1.3 million Australians descended on Bali in 2019, injecting billions into the local economy.

But two years later, the pandemic has had a devastating effect on the Indonesian island, with local businesses and tourism operators telling news.com.au they had faced a relentless battle to survive.

The once-bustling island is a shell of what it once was.

Seminyak’s busy maze of streets, once filled with boutiques and shop owners joyfully bartering for a sale, are dead and devoid of cars and people.

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Shop windows are boarded up and other businesses have been abandoned altogether.

“For Lease” signs are pinned to most shopfronts and the beachside hotel pools, once teeming with sunburnt Aussies partying the days away, are empty.

A local jewellery shop employee, whose shop was the only one open in the street, said the past two years had been “not good”.

“We barely see anybody, it’s so quiet. Nothing is open. Most of the people I know haven’t been able to work. We are one of the only places that managed to stay open,” she said.

Local tour guide Tree told news.com.au she had spent the past two years doing what she could to survive by making snacks and selling them to local shops.

“Please, please come back to Bali,” she said.

“We are ready for Aussies.”

Tree also urged Australians to be fair with the Balinese people when they return.

“Before the pandemic, the shops would charge maybe four or five times the price but now they’re not. They know they need to build that trust and relationship back with the Aussies so you can barter a little bit but please don’t do it too much,” she said.

One potential positive to come out of the pandemic was the drop in traffic jams on the island.

Tree said streets that used to take 30 to 45 minutes to pass through instead were taking five minutes.

“But this is just because all the shops are closed,” she said. “We hope everything will come back the way it was before.”

Other local tourism operators returned to agriculture to survive the pandemic by farming chickens, pigs, vegetables and fruit for money.

Andy, a local hat seller who has spent more than a decade selling hats on Seminyak Beach, said he had to turn to friends in Australia for help.

“My god, it has been really, really bad,” he said.

“It has been very hard on me and my family, my wife and my two kids.”

Andy asked a friend from Australia to send him small amounts of money.

“So we could eat,” he said.

Some places have managed to weather the storm by focusing on local events and local tourists.

The Westin at Nusa Dua, a hotel set in a popular beach enclave on Bali, was booked out for the rest of the month thanks to a local motorbike event.

And some areas of Bali are still thriving — especially the region of Canggu, which is where most Aussie expats call home and run their businesses.

Jetstar also has high hopes after it dropped a $99 flight sale to Bali earlier this month and sold more than 40,000 fares in a single day.

The budget airline restarted direct flights between Australia and Bali’s Denpasar International Airport on March 15.

Pre-Covid, Jetstar operated up to 85 return flights a week to Bali.

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The airline will start slow this month, operating three flights a week from Melbourne before ramping up their scheduling in the lead-up to Easter.

Bali flights from Sydney and Perth are scheduled to recommence in early April, with flights from Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns and the Gold Coast scheduled for May.

This journalist was in Bali as a guest of Jetstar.

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Bali To Begin Fighting Against Overtourism

Posted on Published: August 10, 2023

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Indonesia’s Minster for Tourism and Creative Economies, Sandiaga Uno, has issued statements calling for Bali to start mitigating against the risks of overtourism.

Bali is the most famous travel destination in Indonesia and is considered to be the country’s flagship tourism offering.

Welcoming over 6 million international tourists a year before the pandemic, the island is showing signs of the negative impacts of tourism, something Minister Uno says must be reckoned with quickly. 

While Bali has certainly benefited from the positive impacts of tourism in many ways, it is evident that the huge pressures the tourism sector puts on the island’s natural resources, infrastructure, and communities are starting to become too much.

Some may argue that the effects of overtourism have been felt on the island for the last decade or more, but officials within the government are more aware than ever that protection mechanisms must now be put in place.

Battling the negative impacts of over-tourism before it’s too late will help protect local communities, the environment, and, in the long run, tourists’ experience too.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno (@sandiuno)

Overtourism is defined by the United National World Tourism Organization as “the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences the perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitors experiences in a negative way.”

Examples of the implications of over-tourism include a rising cost of living for local people, and the redirecting of resources to the tourism sector away from local people, in turn reducing the quality of life and livelihoods for local people.

Environmental degradation, including water pollution, noise pollution, air pollution, issues with waste management , and the conversation of viable agricultural land and deforestation in some cases, have all been linked to tourism development and over-tourism. 

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Although Minster Uno and his teams have worked on increasing international tourism in the wake of the pandemic, data shows that demand for travel in Bali by foreign tourists is growing at a much greater rate than for domestic tourists. 

Minister Uno said, “I see visits continuing to increase by more than 80 percent year on year for foreign tourists. Meanwhile, domestic tourists are still growing between single digits or low double digits.”

@jetsetterjulia Staying away from the big tourism destinations is also better for local economies and sustainable travel! Overtourism is a real problem that can lead to ecosystem destruction, overpopulation, excessive pollution, overreliance of local economy on tourism, neglect of other economic sectors, loss of or exploitation of local culture, and more. #ethicaltourism #travelthoughts #traveladvice #femaletraveler #traveltrends #travelhotspots #overtourism #sustainabletravel #ethicaltravel ♬ Storytelling – Adriel

According to Minster Uno, Bali has yet to hit all the criteria to be identified as experiencing over-tourism, but it’s getting close.

He used examples of over-tourism in Europe and shared, “Even before the pre-pandemic. This is what reports that the number of tourists is increasing, and in the end, it has a negative impact on destinations.”

With this in mind, Minster Uno says that to mitigate the potential risks of over-tourism, great effort should be focused on developing “quality and sustainable tourism.”

These are principles that are not new to Bali, nor is it a new point of discussion for leaders.

For years Minster Uno and Bali’s Governor Wayan Koster, as well as other key tourism stakeholders, have been discussing the need for higher quality and sustainable tourism on the island. 

High-quality and sustainable tourism comes at a cost for tourists. While Bali is best known as a luxurious destination, the vast majority of tourists who visit the island opt for experiences and accommodations that fall within the mass tourism category.

This is to say most tourists stay in resort-style accommodations, visit the most well-known attractions, and participate in high-demand activities. 

What leaders like Minister Uno want to see is a shift towards attracting tourists who want to experience a more high-end stay in Bali, those who are willing to pay more for a vacation that promotes sustainable tourism and perhaps even stay longer on the island. 

Minster Uno said, “We [want to] ensure that the number of tourism visits with a target of 8.5 million this year starts shifting to tourists who stay longer and spend on the larger local economy. Bali, for example.” 

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Saturday 30th of September 2023

I like the comment : "it starting to become too much" when actually you cannot even see the sand of kuta beach under the pastic 6 months per year.

Tuesday 15th of August 2023

If you want us to stay longer increase the visa extensions by 60 days at least instead of 30 Or offer multi exit and re entry visas 12 months

Sunday 13th of August 2023

Bali isnt a Luxury Holiday destination at all and this is why its busy as people have been coming here as its affordable.

The South of the Island is so over developed now and so much mess and trafic that its not enjoyable anymore and people coming here for a luxury holiday will grow fed up with the conditions.

Prices have become Crazy for anyone living and working on the Island to pay rent and greed has taken over.

The whole attitude has become less friendly and Less tolerant and the type of people coming to the Island also is spoiling the atmosphere.

Over tourism is already here.

Saturday 12th of August 2023

How about applying the actual building codes and not pungli/ korrupsi to build obscene amount of hotels etc. Must be well over 5000 hotels not to mention other forms of accommodation.enforcevthe environmental laws, traffic laws etc. It's all there to enforce but nothing happens. To many fingers in the duit pie. This is the same guy who said" we Indonesians value our rules and regulations" lol. Wouldn't be this problem if rules n regs were followed. As usual what is said and what is done here are 2 different things. Malu.

@Neol, Laws and regulations are highly valued by the civil service. The more strict laws and regulations -- the more leverage when "negotiating" deals with the public to circumvent rules.

Friday 11th of August 2023

This island is a mess. Don't let money get in the way of law and order. Keep the tourists to under 200,000 arrivals per month. It's an absolute nightmare, people coming and going, being crazy, encourages scams and lack of ethics and morality because people will be leaving anyways. It's like parachuting into a mosh pit at a festival and then catching the helicopter out in a week, so obviously you don't care what will happen in that week.

That shouldn't happen to this island which is supposed to be one of spirituality. Bali and Nusa Penida have become a joke corrupted by the USD, AUD, and Euro.