Bali is the Hawaii of the East. Of the four million tourists who came to Indonesia in 1994, more than 750,000 flew straight to Bali. The number of foreign and domestic tourists arriving in Bali is now approaching 1.5 million a year. The growth in visitors, which stands at about 10% per year, is expected to continue through the late 1990s. Bali already has a full half of all the hotels in Indonesia.
Bali makes a valuable study in the effects of mass tourism on the social and cultural patterns of an indigenous population. Every generation of visitors arrives to “discover” Bali, pronounce it a paradise, and then once home mourns that it’s lost forever. Visitors are so enthralled with the legend surrounding Bali; many arrive thinking that Indonesia is a part of Bali rather than the other way round.