[Music] welcome to [Music] [Music] Bali as Travelers flock back to Bali after the pandemic and record numbers the impact of over tourism is starer than ever as building encroach on Rise fields and garbage washes up on sandy beaches has barley Lost His Image as Paradise I feel very sorry for my grandchildren is that they're not going to have the same experience that I had from 50 years ago and how is the Island's dark past tied to its present [Music] plight [Music] [Applause] [Music] Bali Indonesia has been called Island of the Gods The Living Museum Paradise but the Island's outwardly easygoing atmosphere may be a thing of the past in February 2024 the local government launched a task force to deal with problematic tourists and locals alike hi mate how are you so you are not allowed with this motorbike in the beach because you will distur other people you need to come back and take your motorbike and just walk here in the beach okay thank you very much story the task force currently employs around 70 officers they are deployed in popular areas such as here in changu and the neighboring seak and couta districts part of their job is also to ensure tourists dress appropriately at sacred temples Bali is the only Hindu Enclave in Main Muslim Indonesia [Music] in this slice of paradise there is a wave of discontent Brewing last May then Bali Governor Wan Costa muted putting a cap on visitor numbers citing misbehaving tourists as the reason though the cap did not materialize several occurrences sins would highlight the problem in 2023 barley deported 340 foreigners higher than 188 people the previous year mainly from Russia the United States Britain and Nigeria their violations included overstaying working illegally and exposing themselves in sacred places earlier this year police arrested three Mexicans for an armed robbery that left a Turkish tourist wounded last December the attack on beauty salon staff by two female tourists over a payment dispute went viral the women one British and one American were arrested then deported in February according to local police the task force is a sign of an island grappling with its status as Indonesia's most popular tourist destination perspec [Music] tremer in the is made up of over 177,000 Islands yet of the over 11 million people that visited the country in 2023 almost half made their way to Bali still Bali wants more tourism has transformed the economy contributing directly or indirectly to roughly 80% of the economy the pandemic was brutal for the island costing around $200 trillion rupia or1 13 billion US in 2020 now Bley wants to make up for lost time and lost tourism receipts in 2022 2.2 million foreign tourists visited the island last year that number was 5.3 million beating the target of 4.5 million and this year the Benchmark has been raised [Music] for but the influx of tourists is putting a strain on bali's resources and image tarnished by rampant development overcrowding and grit loock Bali made headlines in December when a traffic jam on the toll road forced people to walk up to 4 kilm to the airport jams are also a constant on the roads leading to places of interest the latest victim of bali's development dilemma is the village of changu beginning in the 1960s the infamous couta Beach was one of the first areas to see substantial tourist development in Bali in the following decades as tourism grew development spread North to lean then seak and now changu it was once a sleepy fishing Village surrounded by vant rice patties now there are concrete buildings on every street in changu developers are attracted by the relatively cheap land prices here [Music] L born and raised in changu Kamaya is also a community leader in his neighborhood while locals reconcile the Island's LoveHate relationship with tourism bali's Evolution into the country's top tourist destination is actually tied to a dark part of Indonesia's history us born Rina Ballinger is the co-writer of Balan dance drama and music a guide to Performing Arts of Bali she first visited the island in 1974 to do research on bali's culture Regina fell in love with the island when I came here I was a Starry Eyed 21-year-old but I did not come here for the exoticism I came here to do a serious uh research on dance and theater and its relationship to religion uh but I was quite young and in those days no electricity no telephones no uh typewriters were even scarce uh so it was a very different Bali she would return to Bali after completing her studies in the United States where she met her future husband anak aun gedra ranki he came from a noble family they married in 1986 the couple has two sons and three grandchildren Rina has witnessed the impact of Tourism on Bali in the last half a century well actually there it's a double-edged sword if you look at it from an economic standpoint there's a lot of good things about it but tourism all over the world also has the other side of the sword which is environmental degradation cultural degradation um the tourists come in without uh in some cases without even an ounce of respect towards the local culture and without understanding the local culture B is thought to be inhabited as early as 4,000 years ago in the 14th century the Hindu Buddhist majapahit Empire settled on the island ruling it till the empire fell in 1520 Bali would become an independent nation of Hindu kingdoms after until it was colonized by the Dutch in 1906 the bonies have always prided themselves on their unique culture uh so people used to come here because of the culture the Dutch would Market barene as a luxury destination of mystical temples and Patty Fields after Independence in 1945 Bley continued to attract a small number of tourists but tourism took off in Earnest under second president sar's New Order government which lasted from 1967 to 1998 the for one activist cynically called the Bali jakarta's Colony tourism grew unabated and by the 1990s the island received over a million visitors a year but beneath the gloss of baliy as an exotic Paradise lies the islands dark past the Dutch conquest of the island in 1906 was a bloody one in the puputan war three local Kings and their subjects resorted to mass suicide rather than surrendering to the Dutch around, 1500 people died uh uh in the 1960s so's regime purged suspected Communists throughout Indonesia it was a retaliation against the Indonesian Communist party after an attempted coup in Jakarta in September 1965 thousands were killed in Bali including G nura Tam's grandfather who was a teacher at that time mura is an activist at Tam 65 is a community that preserves the memory of the balones who lost their lives in the Purge there is now a Critical examination of Tourism and whether it was unwillingly foed upon the balones during the New Order period Whenever there is any kind of political unrest uh anywhere in Indonesia that might affect people in Bali the government then says oh we need to do a cleansing so everybody has to put a certain offering in their family Temple and we have to do these ceremonies so it's to divert people's energy into something that's religious andali that's fairly easy to do but in one way tourism would bring positive change to the island in the evolving role of women according to Balan Customs women have no rights to own property they are excluded from making decisions in B's deeply patriarchal society that means that when they when they get married they move into their husband's compound and they are they're they're kind of like a visitor there because then if the husband decides to take a second wife and the first wife doesn't want to accept that um she's kicked out and then she can't have she can't take her children with her so there's uh she doesn't have very much Choice that's one reason I think women really like to work is so they can get out of the house and they can be somewhere where they are uh better respected that is a resistance from the society uh to see uh Balin woman who is um uh powerful and picking up freedom is not free kadek Sonia pishan is an English lecturer at local University she writes poems which mainly talk about Banes women if freedom is free I will write freely I will write a poem about a bin woman a woman who knows prison better than prisoners a woman who hangs herself and fails a woman who cries every day and stays strong a woman who gets a blame and remains calm a woman who raise family and get black magic a woman who does everything and gets nothing what tourism has brought is economic opportunities for women even if women are mostly employed in less skilled labor I think the positive SES is also that uh a lot of bindis women working in the tourism um industry um like uh men as well and of course it can help them empower the the family as well and to me when people are pessimistic about women's voice in tourism because mostly they are waitress and they are house workers or work ERS I'm not thinking that uh it's uh totally true because some of the women I also know they managers and they are directors even so kadek wants to help women find Opportunities Beyond The Tourist industry she's the founder of communitas mahima an educational and cultural institution that encourages youngsters to read we need to be very careful with the choice of Tourism that we choose I want to see that the people um should think that uh tourism is not the only way to survive or to be able to live in Bali of course in Bali maybe 70% or maybe 75 people working in this industry but you know that is because the parents do not educate their children uh that there are ways yeah you can be Professor you can be um expert in in other fields not only in in tourism you can be psychologist you can be doctor you can be anything but as for the island itself doesn't have Alternatives what happens when the charm of Bali is destroyed by the tourism it brings these are the Terrace rise fields in jati Loui Central Bali the UNESCO world heritage site is popular among fors jaoui is protected because of a centuries old farming method known as subac at the center of subac is the goddess of rice and fertility shrines dedicated to her can be found in rice fields across Bali Wan Kong brings tourists to jati Lui at least four times a week foreign tourists pay 50,000 rupia or around $3 as an entrance fee Indonesians pay 15,000 rupia it's less [Music] than the cafes and restaurants around jati Loui is a reminder that even a world heritage site is at risk of [Music] encroachment bali's Emerald greened rice fields are a Marvel of human Ingenuity they are one of the reasons why tourists visit the island but they're [Music] disappearing every year B loses 700 hectares of agricultural land to development in 2020 Bali suffered a deficit of around 880,000 tons of rice more than 60% of bali's groundwater goes to the tourism industry drying up more than half of the Island's rivers and threatening sites like jati Loui bali's water table especially in the southern part of the island has dropped more than 50 m since 2009 according to one study for some Farmers it is more lucrative to sell their land to developers than to e out a living in agriculture some of the remaining Farmers now supplement their income by making handicrafts aun aled founded Mitra Bali in 1993 the Enterprise buys and sells crafts from these Bales [Music] Artis cas there is some irony that Bali is so dependent on the tourism that critics say are destroying it even the muched balines culture has lost some of its Mystique Bali experienced a cultural Renaissance in the late 80s tourism money and interest meant more funds to upkeep temples and hold traditional ceremonies some question if the pageantry loses is authenticity when it is put up for a show they are good for tourism because it's a spectacle starting probably at the in the 90s maybe or in the early in the early uh 2000s is everywhere in Bali people were doing these huge ceremonies so what I mean by cultural degradation is from the tourist side is there's very little understanding and from the balony side is uh when people say oh what should I see is they'll tell them to go and see these tourist performances as opposed to go to a a little food stall sit down talk to the locals have a cup of coffee and and learn about their life so there's no um real a give and take going going on so it's just the tourists are coming and they're watching they're taking pictures it's an Instagram culture it's let's go and you know to the beautiful spot and now all of these places are making Instagram uh spots for the for the tourists and some people come here just to do that so for for Content elsewhere away from the crowded beaches Lake Tamil lingan in central Bali is becoming increasingly popular with tourists it is form from an ancient volcano calra surrounded by dense rain forests putu ardana is a community leader who works at the locals to protect the forest the lake and the forest help protect Water Resources for the indigenous communities who are mostly Farmers they grow coffee oranges and vegetables but a Ministry of Forestry decree in 1996 designated parts of the forest as a nature tourism Park for [Music] The Villages are lobbying the government to return stewardship of the forest to the locals to do so the government has to First recognize the indigenous tribes ancestral rights to the land [Music] in as concerned over the impact of over tourism GR R the government has promised a more sustainable vision of B's future but will the Allure of tourus dolls prove too [Music] strong and [Music] Lenny pund is a tourism consultant she teaches balan's dances to children in her spare time because I really love she promotes what she calls the four pillars of Tourism art culture tradition and environment the very reasons why tourists visit [Music] Bali [Music] in the last two decades there have been es and flows in B's tourist numbers in October 2002 two bombs killed 202 people in the ca Beach area it was the worst terror attack in Indonesia's history in the aftermath the number of tourists dropped more than 20% in 2003 the s's outbreak then also contributed to the decline in 2017 2018 and 2019 the eruptions of sacred Mount aong led to the cancellations of hundreds of flights but the biggest shock would come in 2020 for travel and tourism have borne the brunt of the co shutdown nowhere is this more evident than on the Indonesian Holiday Island of Bali when the pandemic hit the number of foreign tourists plunged more than 80% over 20,000 people lost their jobs in the tourism industry and the local economy contracted 99.3% it got worse in 2021 when only 51 foreign tourists visited the island a record low the pandemic laid bare the Island's utter dependence on tourism to be honest they went straight back into tourism and this has happened time and time again and it's kind of like why we'll never learn the lessons that we have to diversify but what the pandemic offered was perhaps a chance to rethink bali's relationship with tourism in July 2023 outgoing Governor Wan Costa issued a new guideline on developing Bali in the next 100 years the 2025 to 2125 guideline covers the protection of nature culture and the people of Bali for the first time the government acknowledged the impact of mass tourism on Bali L of since February 14th the government has also put in place a tourist tax of 115,000 rupia or around $9 us the collected revenue is meant to preserve the Island's cultural heritage and protect its environment traff [Music] but pressure from the central government and stakeholders to keep tourism growing is strong in May last year Governor Costa announced a ban on all activities ities on 22 of B's sacred mountains blaming tourist misbehavior yet activities continued and the ban is functionally toothless in January this year a 40 to 75% entertainment tax was met with Fierce push back from the tourism industry the tax has since been put on hold will the government's commitment to sustainability hold when it runs up against the powerful and Rich forces of [Music] Tourism IND but until today uh I personally didn't hear any any any any um strategic plan from B government where are we are going to the um real quality tourism the quality tourism or still in the quantity tourism in the mean time it could be up to local communities to preserve their way of life this is the traditional Village pengle puran which attracts up to 5,000 people a day it is popular among Indonesian tourists who pay an entry fee of 25,000 rupia per person or $160 the money collected from visitors is used to protect the culture and livelihoods of the 1,200 odd villages [Music] nonetheless the influx of tourists is intrusive visitors are allowed to enter family compounds to look around buy drinks snacks and souvenirs but the money from tourism has proven to be useful around 3 billion rupia or around $250,000 were distributed to The Villages during the pandemic as The Villages of pengli puran resist the Temptations of development around them the landscape continues to [Music] change [Music] the tourism Ministry says that the future of Bali lies in such small scale sustainable initiatives but as the post pandemic Revival of Tourism continues at Full Steam the rush to capitalize on returning tourist dollars persists for now and now we have a number of um developments by mainly Russians and ukrainians that all over the island I I think there's maybe seven or eight with every grit locked Motorway every piece of trash thrown in the seas and every tiled over Patty field it feels like the paradise that is B becomes a little more lost but with growing attention on over tourism this could be a chance for change on the island is Bali doomed I would say now yes Bali is doomed there's no way that these concrete jungles can be turned back into rice fields or into agricultural land or into something that's banese [Music] 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