Bali Tourism Expert Calls For Holidaymakers To Prove Finances Before Travel 

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The latest travel figures show that Bali is on track to seeing its busiest year on record for international tourism.

With national figures set to welcome 14 million international arrivals in 2024, Bali has already surpassed predictions for this stage of the year.

However, not all tourism leaders are convinced this is all positive news. 

Tourism academic at the National Education University in Denpasar, Prf. Dr. Ida Bagus Raka Suardana, has spoken with reporters about his concerns about the ‘quality’ of international tourists visiting the island.

He feels that the tourism sector’s successes should be assessed based on the quality of tourism rather than the quantity of arrivals. 

Prof Suardana told reporters, “Even though there are lots of people coming to Bali, many forge-in tourists have changed places to stay, not in places that used to be a source of pride [to Bali hospitality]. Many of them now live in illegal villas.” 

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He also touched on the number of foreigners who are coming to Bali on tourist or social visas and are supposedly seeking work on the island. Prof Suardana added, “There are still many foreign tourists who come to Bali who need money and are not the ones who bring money.”

Prof Suardana explained that in his observation, previously, many more tourists wanted to stay shop at locally owned stores, seeking locally made goods, while staying in destinations like Kuta, Legian, and Nusa Dua.

Prof Suardana told reporters that he has seen an increase in the number of tourists staying at illegally operated cheap hotels or villas. He added, “There’s no point in tourists coming here to Bali, just eating rice and staying in cheap places.”

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Prof Suardana told reporters that he wants to see policies introduced that would ensure foreigners who wished to visit Bali, or Indonesia more broadly, have to show proof of finances in the form of a minimum savings balance before they are granted permission to enter the country or province. 

The latest figures from the Bali Province Centra Statistics Agency show that over half a million international tourists visited Bali in June 2024. The data reveals that the most frequent arrivals were from Australia, with 131,391 arrivals in June, followed by tourists from India, with 60,040 people.

Tourists from China made the third most frequent arrivals, with 34,312 visitors. Tourists from the USA accounted for the fourth most frequent arrivals with 25,150 people, and a total of 25,133 people from Singapore visited the province last month, too. 

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Prof Suardana’s comments about changing travel trends for international tourist have been confirmed by latest travel data too.

Though the figures account for the tourists staying in legally operating villas, it is clear that more tourists are enjoying the privacy offered by a rental villa, home or apartment. 

Speaking to the press last week the Chairman of the Bali Villa Association (BVA), Putu Gede Hendrawa, explained that villa occupancy is averaging 85-95% in Bali right now, which is higher than the combined average room occupancy rate for hotels and guesthouses around the province. 

Prof Suardana is also not the first tourism leader to suggest that proof of minimum savings or proof of income should be mandatory for tourists wishing to visit Bali.

In May 2023, the then governor, Wayan Koster, suggested that a minimum income requirement and tourist quotas could be introduced to tackle a rise in the number of badly behaved foreigners in Bali.

This, too, was all part of his mission to drive more high-quality tourism on the island. 

While leaders have not clearly defined what ‘high quality’ tourism would look like, the general themes are that of high-spending tourists who prioritize suitable and culturally respectful tourism activities. 

With all this in mind, Indonesia’s Minister for Tourism and Creative Economies issued a statement less than two months ago to share how he feels the overall quality of tourists to Bali is increasing.

In a statement issued after the World Water Forum event where he reviewed comparative tourism figures over the last three years, Minister Sandiaga Uno said, “I can conclude that our foreign tourists have become quality tourists with higher spending and longer stays in tourist destinations.”