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Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-4750-3487

Abstract

Tourism is growing and growing fast. Before the pandemic, in 2018, the number of arrivals worldwide reached 1.4 billion arrivals from less than 600 million, twenty years earlier. In many countries, especially in developing ones, tourism is perceived as a unique opportunity, a model of territorial development, possibly a national strategy. In Indonesia, after being elected in 2014, former President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) emphasised the importance of tourism, considered as a strategic sector. It had to become the largest exchange currency contributor to Indonesia’s revenue thus bypassing rubber, coal, oil and gas (Fournié & Dou, 2018).

In the collective awareness of tourists, Bali remains the place to go in the archipelago. International visitors praise the beautiful landscapes and paddy fields of Bali; the uniqueness of its Hindu and Buddhist cultures. In 2018, the ‘island of the Gods’ ranked within the twenty best destinations in the Global Destination Cities Index with more than 8 million visitors; fourth in Trip Advisor, ranking just behind Paris, London, and Roma. Such a performance, and the associated revenues, prompted the governmental decision to develop ‘10 new Bali’ across the country.

Unfortunately, a closer picture offers a different reality. If foreign visitors fill the pockets of some happy few, tourism appears on its back side as ‘a factory of poverty’ and a destructive force. Bali is a place where the various types of tourism frequently clash. Religious tourism faces mass tourism; nature lovers discover landscapes spoiled by hotels and residences. Drug business and gangs flourish whereas at the same time the authenticity of the local culture vanishes. Worse, at a time when scientific results indicate major changes in weather, agriculture, water availability; tourism may impact the specific identity, destroy the unique character, the networks of complicity and mutual aid that make the cement of the island (Fournié & Dou, 2020).

This article intends to revisit the evolution of Bali in the last 100 years. By using Strategic Intelligence, focusing on Bali’s religious and cultural roots, it will aim at proposing a sustainable but most of all resilient model of development. Time is running to stop the killing of Bali and the disappearance of a unique culture, its religious sanctuaries and pilgrimages. Also, the current study will be organised around two articles. The first one (Part I) presented hereinafter will review the history of tourism in Bali and stresses the promises that had been made by political rulers and investors to preserve the essence of the Balinese culture: the Tri Hita Karana (THK). A future article (Part II) will elaborate on the situation as of 2025. And determine in a factual manner if the initial dream has been preserved or in other words if Bali remains as a God’s paradise or has become a Human’s inferno. The combination of both intends to answer the following questions: what was the process that transformed a ‘barbaric island’ into ‘the place to go’ in less than fifty years? Was the development of Bali a positive gift from the Western world to Balinese people? Can we, by using Economic and Strategic Intelligence, forecast what the future of the island will be?

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/es8p-tx31

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