Economic Impacts
"Bali's economy is moving far faster than the rest of the country. Balinese proudly buzz around on motorscooters. They rarely have to look far for work."-The Paradise Paradox, Keith Loveard
Tourism in Bali has contributed much to the boost of of Bali's economy. As an economic driver, it is more powerful than agricultural activities which was the economic staple of Bali previously. Due to the tourism and developments to support tourist activities, many jobs have been created for the Balinese.
Environmental Impacts To support tourism, infrastructure of Bali has been improved on. For example, ease of travelling to, around and out of Bali.These improvements benefit the local community as well. However, natural environment has been compromised with the lack of planning for tourism development to meet the surge in tourists.
Due to rapid unplanned tourism development, parts of Bali’s ecology have been destroyed, with its natural environment compromised to meet tourism demands. For example, water currents off Bali have been altered by sand dredging off the Benoa region and beaches in the Sanur region are being used to make way for the resorts. Water supply for locals is also inadequte due to the heavy use of water by resorts.
Socio-cultural Impacts
The host community (Balinese) are the most affected by tourism. Aspects of their culture and heritage such as dances, batik art and various heritage monuments are preserved with tourism and the standards of livings of most are improved with jobs created in tourism and related sectors. However, value of the Balinese culture is chipped away by tourism resulting in dissatisfaction among some Balinese.
The Balinese culture faces loss of authenticity as significance of traditional arts and religious worships such as dances and processions are lost by being used as entertainment for tourists. The lifestyles and traditions of the Balinese are also scrutinised by tourists and deemed as tourism products. Recently, the tourism has also spread to the Tenganan region which is home to indigenous people of Bali, raising concern of the dilution of culture again.
Other than the loss of authenticity and value of culture and traditions, values of the Balinese have also been heavily compromised and exploited. As previously mentioned, marriage and starting family is one of the most important aspects of Balinese culture. However, due to demands of tourism, sex tourism is one of the emerging segments in Bali, with locals touting sex (E.g. Bali boys issue). In order to acquire land for tourism development, foreign investors have reportedly proposed marriages of convenience.
The rich culture has also been commodified to meet the demands of tourists. This will be furhter discussed in the next post.
