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Crimes committed by tourists in Bali raises questions over visa exemption expansion
Around 6.07 million tourists arrived in Bali in 2018, triple the 2.08 million tourists in 2008 and six times more than the 1.1 million tourists in 1998, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show.
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Foreign tourists disembarked on the jetty at Banjar Nyuh Port in Nusa Penida, Bali on June 10, 2019
(Shutterstock/JG Arif Wibowo)
T
he thousands of visitors that flock to Bali every year are starting to get under the skin of Kuta village head I Wayan Wasista, whose village has metamorphosed from rice paddies and fisher villages to an all-day tourist epicenter.
From begging and alcohol-induced acts to crimes like theft and skimming, he expressed concerns about the rising numbers of lawbreaking visitors in his area.
“Back then, would we have ever envisioned that there would be tourists committing crimes, like skimming or robbery? I’m quite surprised myself. How have we come to this?” Wasista asked.
Wasista’s qualms reflect a public order problem that has haunted Bali ever since it saw a huge visitor uptick in the last decade or two, experts say. In a broader context, it presents a big challenge for Indonesia’s shift in economic focus to tourism as an engine of growth with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s ambitious tourist arrival and destination development targets.
Around 6.07 million tourists arrived in Bali in 2018, triple the 2.08 million tourists in 2008 and six times more than the 1.1 million tourists in 1998, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data show. More than 5.7 million visitors set foot on the island between January and November 2019, representing more than half of tourist arrivals using air transportation across Indonesia.
Jokowi initially aimed for 20 million tourist arrivals in 2019, which he later revised to 18 million, a number not likely to be achieved as tourist arrivals reached only 14.92 million between January and November last year, according to the data.
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