Model management: What is right for Bali's tourism?

Model management: What is right for Bali's tourism?

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): For years Balinese intellectuals have
demanded that the government reevaluate the mass-tourism model,
which has been applied as the basis for the island's tourism
development.

They believe that Bali must instead pursue the quality-tourism
model.

"Bali is a small island with very limited natural resources.
It's too bad that almost everybody seems to forget this simple
fact," said Prof. L.K. Suryani.

With a total area of only 5,632 square kilometers, a tiny 0.29
percent of the total area of Indonesia, and a population of 3.1
million, Bali is clearly an overpopulated island. Its population
density reaches 542 people per square kilometer.

Yet it continues to deal with an influx of visitors both
foreign and domestic, who are lured by the island's age-old
majestic culture and natural beauty, presented in each and every
travel brochure. In 1999 the total number of visitors was 2.4
million.

Despite it all, the government has set an ambitious target for
five million visitors in 2002.

"So the government believes that getting as many tourists as
possible is the primary goal of Bali's tourism development. Yet,
it, either deliberately or not, has ignored the heavy cost of
that mass-tourism policy," outspoken environmentalist Made
Suarnatha said.

Bali's natural resources are the first thing to have fallen
victim to the policy. Research conducted by Bali's leading
environmental non-governmental organization, the Wisnu
Foundation, disclosed that today Bali has consumed 81.5 percent
of its 4 billion cubic meters of potential water resources.

It is estimated that by the 2007 the entire water resources
will have been used up.

The mass-tourism policy also has triggered the uncontrolled
development of hundreds of tourism facilities. Hotels,
restaurants, pubs, bars, galleries, artshops, shopping malls and
golf courses continue to mushroom, mostly in the southern part of
the island, devouring some 1,000 hectares of ricefields each
year.

By 1999 Bali was home to 1,234 hotels with 34,317 rooms, and
642 restaurants with capacity for 51,660.

"The manner and speed in which these tourism facilities
developed have contributed a lot to the increasing damage
suffered by Bali's environment -- sea erosion, coral reef
destruction, mangrove forest devastation and disappearing green
areas," Suarnatha said.

In many cases the rapid development damaged the very things
which had made the area worth visiting.

In Kintamani the newly built tourism facilities are
obstructing the serene beauty of the famous Lake Batur, while in
Ubud the heralded natural landscape of ricefields and hidden
rivers is being transformed into unsightly solid concrete
buildings.

Damage

"The megatourism project at Serangan island has not only
destroyed the island's environment, but also has damaged its
neighboring areas, namely Sanur and Tanjung Benoa, which are
suffering from the worsening erosion caused by the development,"
another environmentalist, Made Mangku, said.

Tourism facilities have also contributed greatly to the
already chronic problem of waste and garbage management. The lack
of political will, which is apparent from the small amount of
funds, manpower and equipment allocated to the cause, has made it
difficult for the local government's waste management office to
appropriately tackle the mounting problem.

"The mass-tourism model has also brought negative impacts to
the social structure, and, most importantly, the cultural
structure of Bali," a young intellectual Nyoman Gde Sugiharta
said.

The rapid decrease of ricefields has not only shaken up
agricultural society, which is the main foundation of Balinese
culture, but also has marginalized Balinese farmers. In the long
run, the marginalization of the farmers and the decrease in the
number of ricefields will affect the continuance of Bali's
agriculture based on traditional institutions such as banjar,
desa adat and sekeha.

"Many Balinese artists are too busy catering to the needs of
tourism market that they do not have time to contemplate, or even
worse, to be creative," he said.

The quandary is that the tourism industry is the backbone of
Bali's development. The industry has poured millions of dollars
into investment, taxes and revenues, helping Bali survive the
economic crisis which hobbled many other provinces.

"We acknowledge the huge contribution the tourism industry has
made to the prosperity of Bali," said critic Putu Suasta. "And we
never blame the tourists for all the problems we have. To be
honest, the mistakes are ours, it is our own government that
chose and applied the wrong model of tourism industry
development."

Solution

The intellectuals believe that the only solution is the
quality tourism model that will enable Bali to gain the maximum
benefit from the industry, without sacrificing the future of the
island.

"The aim is not the number of tourists, but the quality of
tourists. The tourist with a deeper understanding of Bali's
problems, high spending power and better length of stay, is what
we are looking for," one said.

The intellectuals identified several steps that must be taken
to reach that aim. First, the number of visitors to Bali must be
limited to a responsible and reasonable number. The Bali
government later must create a blueprint, which clearly defines
which area would be developed, and which area would be conserved,
and enforce that blueprint resolutely. The blueprint must include
a restriction on megaproject tourism facility development.

The government must also create a scheme to fairly distribute
the revenues of the tourism sector to the nine regencies in Bali.
Today most of the tourism revenues are headed to Badung, Denpasar
and Gianyar, which has created a gap in economic wealth and a
brewing sense of jealousy from the other regencies.

"The government also has to launch a program to restore the
natural resources and ecologically damaged areas in Bali. And, at
the same time, start the development of a proper waste management
system," Suasta said.

An ardent defender of the mass-tourism model, I Gde Wiratja,
rejected the idea of quality tourism, saying that it was too
premature to apply the model.

"We are not ready to do that. With the poor quality of our
infrastructures, the stressful traffic jams, the bureaucrats who
love asking for bribes, the lack of a good public transportation
system, how can we ask for quality tourism?" said the head of
Bali's chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association
(PHRI).

Wiratha also said that 94 percent of 1999's Rp 197 billion
investment in Bali's hotel and restaurant sector was from non-
Balinese entrepreneurs. He feared the application of the quality-
tourism model would only benefit rich entrepreneurs from Jakarta,
Bandung or abroad, and not the Balinese.

"Limitations on tourist number and restrictions on tourism
facility development will make many young Balinese entrepreneurs
lose their chance to enter this industry, and in the long run,
lose their chance to contribute something to this island," he
said.

Until these two groups find a way to settle their differences,
the haunting image of an overpopulated and overexploited Bali
will hang in the air, waiting to happen. (I Wayan Juniarta)