Is Bali's tourist industry on the right track?
By I Wayan Juniartha
DENPASAR, Bali (JP): After having been exposed to tourism for at least seventy years, the most disturbing question for many people in Bali at the dawn of this new millennium is one that is also most difficult to answer: Is Bali's tourist industry on the right track and growing at a sustainable rate?
For Ida Ayu Mas, a familiar critical voice in Bali, the answer is simply no. For the last twenty years, she said, the tourist industry had only widened the economic gap among the Balinese. Mass tourism, the policy currently adopted by the government of Bali, has been the main reason for that gap.
"The policy has proved to be beneficial to only a small group of Balinese people, namely the ruling elite and the well-to-do -- while the rest of the people are exploited. The policy also inflicted untold damage on the island's cultural structures," she said.
Furthermore, the policy has robbed the people of their rights to be actively involved in the policy-making process, since most of the decisions concerning tourism development are dictated either by the government or the investors.
"The people of Bali, and by saying that I mean the majority of them, have never been fully involved in the tourism development plan. They are mostly passive objects, instead of active subjects in the development process," she stated.
The economic gap, combined with social envy, have led the common people to demanding more job opportunities at tourist spots and a bigger slice of the revenue generated from tourism. They have also resorted to hostile acts like blocking roads leading to important facilities, or even storming such facilities.
Made Suarnatha, an observer from the non-governmental environmental group Wisnu Foundation, stressed that the Balinese are not the only victims of the poor tourism development plan. He regretted what he called the Balinese people's tendency to exploit themselves.
One clear example, Suarnatha said, lied in the way the Balinese treated the ancient wisdom of Tri Hita Karana, the teachings on how man should live harmoniously with God, his fellow human beings and Nature. The Balinese cherish the teachings, bureaucrats keep mentioning them in their long and boring speeches, and scholars proudly quote them as a prove of Bali's cultural superiority.
"Yet, we betray Tri Hita Karana's basic precepts almost everyday by building hotels at sacred sites, overexploiting our natural resources, destroying our forest, poisoning our rivers and waters, and letting ourselves sink deeper in the mud pool of capitalistic greediness," he said.
Pristine mangrove forests are being destroyed to make way for mega shopping centers, beautiful coral reefs are being damaged by cruise ships' anchors and reckless divers, and the island's 51- kilometer-long beach is being damaged by abrasion. Not to mention, the numerous environmental nightmares induced by various tourism development projects.
Suarnatha went on to say that the Balinese is now becoming a prisoner of the western image of Bali as the last paradise, the island of a thousand temples, or the island of the Gods. The image is now defining the way the Balinese comprehend their surroundings.
"Some people love this image. But, I believe the image somehow has trapped us from moving forward. The image is also dictating what we should and should not do if we want to retain our "Baliness". Isn't that ironic, being holed up and defined by an image made popular in travel brochures, and not by our real traits and characters?" he said.
Both Ida Ayu Mas, herself an alternative tourism entrepreneur, and Suarnatha agreed that unless a drastic change of paradigm took place, the situation would get worse.
And precisely that kind of drastic change of paradigm is currently being passionately fought for by Bali's newly installed Tourism Office head I Gde Pitana Brahmanda. An expert in Balinese studies and a respected scholar turned government bureaucrat, Pitana has repeatedly said that the Bali Tourism Office would pursue a different course during his tenure.
"Let's not talk about how many tourists we can woo next year. I don't deny the importance of that, but we should know when enough is enough. There is a clear and fine line between trying to be prosperous and an acute case of greediness. I believe that we should not do anything out of greed, and that we should start aiming for quality, and not just quantity," he stressed.
He said in the future Bali must put more emphasis on community-based tourism, which would give greater participatory space for the locals and promote small-scale tourism facilities, instead of major capital-driven tourism, which was signified by mega-scale development projects and the consumption of natural resources at unsustainable levels. That policy must work hand-in- hand with a quality tourism approach. So, Bali's tourist industry should not only be trying to woo as many visitors as possible, but also targeting high-spending and quality tourists who come for a longer length of stay.
The mass-tourism policy at its worst, Pitana said, contributed nothing but overburdened the island's limited natural and cultural resources. He considered between 1.4 million and two million tourists per year as an ideal and manageable number.
Pitana also identified several key obstacles that could hamper Bali's progress in transforming itself into a quality tourism destination such as the lack of firm law enforcement and clear policies, which have resulted in overdevelopment and overpopulation in several areas.
The increasing number of conflicts among the Balinese people, and the shortage of proper public infrastructure, are also among the obstacles.
"We must deal with mundane problems of traffic jams and dirty public toilets, and at the same time we must also address 'higher' level problems, such as regional autonomy and a fair distribution of tourism revenue. Unless these problems are tackled appropriately, quality-oriented tourism will remain a mere discourse among Bali's elite," he said.
Yet, according to Ida Ayu Mas, it isn't as simple as that. Only the elite and the well-to-do have the know-how of implementing the quality-tourism approach. The majority of the Balinese do not possess the knowledge or the money to pursue that course.
"Put it briefly, nothing will change -- the new policy will still benefit the same people who had already benefited from the former policy," she said.
"And now, most of the Balinese people only care about money. Everybody wants to get rich badly, as if they are starving for it. Could the quality-tourism approach be implemented effectively in this atmosphere of greediness?" she added.
She said it was high time the Balinese not put all their eggs in one "basket of tourism".
Bali should start exploring other possibilities, such as rejuvenating its dormant agriculture sector -- with new technology and a different approach, of course, or developing the island as Indonesia's Information Technology (IT) center.
"It is important that we keep looking for ways to help the majority of the Balinese people without compromising their culture and environment," she said. Suarnatha, on the other hand, believed the solution must be sought through educating and informing the Balinese people on the current state of their island.
"Nobody, and I really do mean nobody, be it scholars or bureaucrats, has the sole right to determine the path tourism or the future of this island will take. Tell the people everything, and then let them make decisions," he said.
Like it or not, tourism has also played a vital role in the development of Bali. It has contributed greatly in the conservation and continuation of Hinduism in Bali.
So far, Bali has been successful in developing its tourist industry. The way the Balinese people redefine their concept of tourism will determine the future of the island and its people in years to come.