Bali Leaders Call For Honorary Body For Cultural Tourism 

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Tourism experts in Bali are calling for the creation of a Cultural Tourism Honorary Board to help supervise the development of sustainable and culturally respectful tourism across the island.

The critique comes as many leaders and residents feel there has been a change in the way tourism development prioritises cultural respect and preservation.

Tourism experts I Made Sulasa Jaya, has spoke to reporters about ways in which he feels Bali can establish more cultural respect in the tourism sector.

He said “What Bali really urgently needs is a Cultural Tourism Honorary Board or another name with the main task of maintaining cultural values, as well as supervising more moral industry practices and publications and promotions that are more respectful of Balinese culture.”

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This Cultural Tourism Honorary Board would be made up of members of government at all levels and community members who can meet regularly to discuss how to maintain cultural values and issues facing the wider community and supervise the implementation of recommendations of the board.

Jaya noted, however, that he feels such a board must operate within the legal umbrella of the province and should be financed by the central government. 

He noted that this model could be implemented across provinces in Indonesia. He noted that this is simply elevating a system already in place in many tourism villages in Bali.

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While many back Jaya’s calls for the creation of a Cultural Tourism Honorary Board, other feels the solutions are far simpler.

The Chair of the Alliance of the Bali Marginal Tourism Actors, Wayan Puspa Negara, said that stricter law enforcement is the way forward, with a specific focus on spatial planning in terms of tourism development and stricter sanctions for tourists who violate the law. 

Over the last few months, there have been increasing discussions about how to create a tourism model for Bali that is both sustainable and culturally respectful.

With such rapid development across the island increasing in the post-pandemic era and the increase in bad behavior, leaders and local communities want to see real change. 

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The Head of the Bali Tourism Office, Took Bags Pemayun, and the Acting Governor of Bali have both confirmed that a study and review of the newly introduced Balli Tourism Tax Levy is underway.

The policy, which was introduced in February this year, requires all intentional tourists and holidaymakers to pay IDR 150,000 as a contribution to the cultural and natural preservation of the island and to support infrastructural development on the island. However, data shows that over 60% of foreigners have been failing to pay their taxes. 

Leaders are now investigating whether increasing the levy to IDR 800,000 (USD 50) per person is an appropriate way to attract more ‘high-quality tourism’ or whether introducing legal sanctions for those who have been found to have been dodging the fee. 

The Acting Governor of Bali, Sang Made Mahendra Jaya, told reporters this week, “I agree [tourists] should be given sanctions if there are those who are naughty, especially now that there are many unruly tourists not only being sanctions for foreign tourist fees but violations of the order.”

Leaders in Bali and across the country are starting to speak with a real fear about the situation on the island.

Andry Wibowo, a spokesman for the Ministry for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, spoke at the Orderly Indonesian Movement meeting on Wednesday about the ‘pathology of criminality’ held by some foreigners in Bali. 

He said, “This pathology must be a concern, especially for local governments to make efforts to monitor, identify, and enforce the law when someone commits a violation of the law.”

He added, “so that this does not become a pathology in the future which makes it difficult for us ourselves to control the situation that is growing and developing from foreign criminal gangs.”

Not all leaders are so fearful of the negative impacts of a small minority of foreigners in Bali.

The Mayor of Denpasar has spoken out in the last month calling on the public to celebrate the positive contributions tourists and foreign residents make on the island on a regular basis.