Bali’s Locals Are Really Fed Up With Rude Tourists

Bali has long been a popular vacation spot, as visitors seek out its calming beaches and verdant nature. But more recently, some of those tourists haven’t been getting a very warm welcome from locals.

Since Bali reopened to international travel a little more than a year ago, residents have become fed up with the bad behavior exhibited by visitors, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

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“It was acceptable to a point, but it has now gone too far,” Justin Smith, the owner of a luxury travel-planning company, told the Post. “There’s an absolute lack of respect for the destination and for Bali to be pushed to that extent, that means this bad behavior is pretty extensive.”

Among the offenses locals have dealt with are reckless driving, immigration violations, and indecent exposure. And while some of these are certainly illegal, many more actions are simply disrespectful to the local culture, such as complaints about traffic detours due to religious processions. A lot of tourists seem to forget that both respect is extremely important to the Balinese, Smith said.

“Destroying their culture, means destroying their life,” Tjok Bagus Pemayun, the head of Bali’s government tourism office, told The Washington Post.

To combat the island’s tourism problem, Bali is working to implement changes that would cut down on the number of people visiting and encourage those who are to act more respectfully. The tourism board recently launched an ad campaign saying as much, and officials have proposed motorbike bans and taxes for foreign visitors, among other measures. The government has even deported visitors.

On this, Bali isn’t alone. Several other countries, states, and cities are trying to adapt to over-tourism and cut back on the ways in which it’s affecting the local culture. Hawaii might get rid of its government-sponsored tourism marketing agency, while Italy has fined tourists for offenses ranging from littering to vandalism.

Still, this isn’t to say that Bali and these other places don’t welcome tourism—as long as it’s carried out with a little bit of deference. Pemayun said that “Balinese people feel very happy” now that international travel has resumed to the island, and many locals continue to be welcoming to the visitors they meet. Moving forward, they’d just like that respect to flow both ways.

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