Tourism Policy and Planning: Bali's Mass Tourism Case and Solutions

This case study examines the issue of mass tourism in Bali, Indonesia, exploring its historical context, the factors contributing to its growth, and the resulting negative impacts on the environment, culture, and local resources. The assignment highlights the shift from cultural tourism to mass tourism, the rapid increase in visitor numbers, and the strain on infrastructure and resources, including water scarcity, land loss, and waste management challenges. The paper proposes mitigation strategies, such as limiting transportation options, adopting a "high value-low volume" approach, and restricting the number of tour licenses, drawing parallels to Bhutan's successful implementation of similar strategies. The analysis emphasizes the need for sustainable tourism practices, balancing economic benefits with environmental conservation and cultural preservation, and concludes with a call for immediate action to protect Bali's unique identity and prevent its degradation due to overtourism.

Running head: TOURISM POLICY AND PLANNING
Tourism Policy and Planning
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1. Introduction
Tourism is the largest industry in the world as it is responsible for more than one-tenth of
the jobs globally and at the same time, is contributing to more than 8% of the domestic
economic activity (Aslan, 2014). However, throughout the last decade of the 20th century, the
notion- environment is a key factor in tourism and that tourism depends upon the
environment have strongly emerged and it has been concluded in a range of studies.
Relationship between environment and tourism is visible in several levels. Although there has
been an enormous amount of positives that came along with tourism, there have been many
cases where “mass tourism” has resulted in negative. It has become a prevalent phenomenon
that has put the tourism development in question. Some of the notable destinations that are
affected by mass tourism include Barcelona, The Gambia, Sunshine Coast of Australia,
Botswana, and Bulgaria etc.
This paper shall elaborate on presenting a brief on a mass tourism case of Bali in
Indonesia and proposing some effective solutions to mitigate the situation.
2. Discussion
2.1. Case description
Bali is often regarded as “the islands of gods” (Scheffer & Sumampouw, 2016). It has a
deodorant-commercial-style cliché along with a gorgeous climate. It had more than 4 million
visitors in the year 2017. With the same, the city receives several day excursionists along
with 2.1 million of overnight tourists spending 48 million nights in the very destination
(Tajeddini, Ratten & Denisa, 2017). The sheer mass of visitors and their rapid growth
through many of the years has led in a backlash against tourism by several residents. It is to

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mention that Bali is a very important case study for its early recognition of the issue, the wide
range of ways in which the city has sought to manage the tourism, its high level of
determination in not scapegoating the tourists and the transparency of its “multi-stakeholder
approach”. The city is threatened in a way that it can soon be unrecognizable.
Bali became a touristic destination during the 1970s. However, in the beginning it was a
cultural tourism, but gradually people there are witnessing mass tourism. The data of 2011
suggest that the numbers of tourist increase in Bali have more than doubled since it is
unaffected by the 2002 terror attack that left about 200 dead (Gambetta & Hertog, 2017). The
city embraced its Mediterranean coastline and imported sand for creating new beaches in
place of docks and it is then when the tourists started to arrive. The growth in tourism rapidly
increased from 4 million in the year 2017 to 18.2 million in the year 2019. Tourism today
accounts for about 80% of the total economy in Bali.
The increasing number of tourists has created a mass tourism industry in the Bali island
and it indeed has created wealth but not without a cost. This cost includes shortage of water,
misusing water sources, lost ownership of the land, flow of money to abroad. Hundreds of
hotels use a large share of freshwater reserves and every 4-star room consume about 300
litres every day (Ilahi, WARO & Sumarsono, 2015). Now, there has also been a drinking
water crisis in Bali. It is also to mention that each year about 700 hectares of land is lost to
the hotels, luxury housing for the rich foreigners and roads for improving the connections of
the other cities on the island. With the same, each day about 13,000 cubic metres of waste is
dumped on the public tips but only half is recycled. As per Ilahi, WARO & Sumarsono
(2015), there has been 13% more cars on the Bali roads every year and this is again steadily
increasing the traffic and is causing high road jams.

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In an attempt for mitigating the negative impacts of mass tourism on the local Hindu
culture, the local governmental authorities at Bali have introduced an environmental
legislation. One of the provisions has made it mandatory for the resorts to be set back at least
for 150m from the beaches with no hotel within 5km of the Hindu temples. But, it is very
unfortunate to mention that the initiative has made no significant difference. The efforts for
decentralising the government in Indonesia have given a disproportion share of the power to
the “bupati” who ran the areas roughly equivalent to the British county. Again, in the year
2011, the Bali government issued a ban on the new building in the highly developed areas
and warned that the island is in danger of becoming an infertile land brisling with concrete
(Gurtner, 2016).
2.2. Actions to mitigate
Mass tourism has now become a part of Bali. Forty years of rapid growth in tourism have
resulted in systems and structures that significantly based on the tourist. Such dependency
would not change and due to this reason, mass tourism would stay as a part of Bali’s future.
But, certain actions can be taken to mitigate the issue. Bali must limit the transportation
options as travel has become more affordable in the last decade. The low-cost carriers have
been proliferated and at the same time, the megaships from the cruise giants have also
extended their reach all around the world (Johns & Namgyal, 2017). Bali must take actions to
restrict the new tourist shops present in the city centre. It can adopt a “high value-low
volume” approach to decrease the negative impact of the tourism on its environment. This
approach is aligned with the Gross National Happiness (GNH) development philosophy of
the country on the basis of equal consideration of the environmental conservation and
preservation, good governance, cultural integrity and the sustainable and equitable socio-
economic development (Teoh, 2015). This is a very unique approach that can be used to
balance the advantages of successful tourism industry with conservation of culture and

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nature. Bali is widely known for its culture and rich heritage. By means of implementing the
high value low impact approach, the country can also protected its culture, natural
environment and traditions. The policy would serve the objective of creating an image of
high-yield and exclusive Bali. With the same, this approach is also likely to decrease the
negative environmental impacts on the pristine wildlife areas and at the same time, increase
the socio-economic benefits.
Furthermore, Bali can also take action to limit down the numbers of licences that are
available to the tour operations or the day time that they can operate in many of the popular
areas. This can further help in limiting down the effect of overcrowding while providing
suitable experience for the visitors. The expectations for the access could also be set for the
tourists prior to the time they arrive, so they are not disruptive and disappointed upon
arriving.
2.3. Example of a destination that has used the solution
There are several nations that have adopted the high value low volume approach to the
tourism. For example, Bhutan is known for its luxury resorts that often offer the guests an
exclusive usage of the whole land (Johns & Namgyal, 2017). The country has spending
minimums and visa maximums and this is further limiting the total number of tourists to enter
into the country. With the same, it also requires them to spend a limited amount of money
during their stay. The approach has stopped Bhutan from heading the mass tourism way. In
the year 2011, there were about 27 lakh of visitors in Bhutan, which is equal to more than
one-third of the total population. However, the total tourists visit decreased by 3.54%
(Lipscombe, 2016). By implementing the high value low impact approach, the country also
protected its culture, natural environment and traditions. The main aim of it is to attract the

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discerning tourists who would respect the unique values and culture of Bhutan while
providing the visitors with an unforgettable one of a kind experience.
3. Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is to conclude that the world is, at present, an
unprecedented period of tourism growth and not everyone is happy for it. With the rapid
improvement in the travel industry, the destinations have not been well-equipped for dealing
with the social, cultural and economic ramifications. Bali too has been the hardest hit by the
stress of the increased tourism and travel of visitors around the world. The destination needs
to be aware that the image that they are presenting to the travellers and the demand that are
created for access to those experiences cannot be provided to them in sustainable manner.
The country must immediately take actions to mitigate the issue of mass tourism. In order to
do so, it needs to restrict and bring certain limitations in terms of its tourism. Otherwise, the
beauty and culture of Bali will be completely destroyed due to the pressure from mass
tourism. It could soon be unrecognisable as an idyllic destination for its cumulated impacts of
the mass tourism, ecological disaster and frenzied consumption.

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4. References:
Aslan, A. (2014). Tourism development and economic growth in the Mediterranean
countries: Evidence from panel Granger causality tests. Current issues in
Tourism, 17(4), 363-372.
Gambetta, D., & Hertog, S. (2017). Engineers of jihad: The curious connection between
violent extremism and education. Princeton University Press.
Gurtner, Y. (2016). Returning to paradise: Investigating issues of tourism crisis and disaster
recovery on the island of Bali. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 28,
11-19.
Ilahi, A., WARO, A. I., & Sumarsono, P. (2015). Public transport reform in Indonesian cities.
In Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for transportation studies (Vol. 10).
Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies.
Johns, R., & Namgyal, T. (2017). Case Study 13: Wellbeing Through Travel: High Value-
Low Impact Tourism in the Developing Country, Bhutan. In Services Marketing
Cases in Emerging Markets (pp. 159-168). Springer, Cham.
Lipscombe, T. (2016). The First British Book about Bhutan: A Publishing History of
Turner’s Account of an Embassy. Journal of Bhutan Studies, 35.
Scheffer, C. S., & Sumampouw, S. (2016, November). Destination Branding as a Strategy to
Increase Positive Image of Indonesia. In International Conference on Tourism,
Gastronomy, and Tourist Destination (ICTGTD 2016). Atlantis Press.
Tajeddini, K., Ratten, V. and Denisa, M., 2017. Female tourism entrepreneurs in Bali,
Indonesia. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 31, pp.52-58.

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Teoh, S. (2015). The governmentality approach to sustainable tourism: Bhutan’s tourism
governance, policy and planning. In The Practice of Sustainable Tourism (pp. 135-
154). Routledge.