Government officials are criticizing reclamation protestors, saying footage circulating of them burning tires is affecting the willingness of some foreign tourists to travel to Bali.
Instead of looking at the bigger picture and focusing the real issue here—the monster development project poised to devour Benoa Bay—the talk of the town seems to be all about how protestors are ‘hurting’ Bali’s image. The Benoa project would devastatingly reclaim 700 hectares of the bay for the construction of a cluster of Dubai-esque artificial islands.
But never mind the irreversible consquences such a project would have, member of the House of Representatives, Reni Marlinawati Amin, said that tourism is one of the government’s top priorities.
“This (the protest) could hurt the economy,” Amin told Merdeka on Tuesday.
“When tourists don’t come, it’s to their (Balineses’) own detriment,” he added.
These sorts of “problems” become an obstacle, according to Amin.
It’s tourists from Asian countries, Japan especially, that appear to be canceling trips after seeing videos from last week—we should add that at no point did the tire-burning reportedly get out of hand or violent.
A Jakarta travel agent similarly complained about the tire-burning, saying that a large group of Japanese tourists cancelled their trip to Bali in mid-September. The group of 150 people cancelled their plans for security reasons, explained Yusuf Martatama.
Martama has been trying to tell travelers that Bali is safe for tourists, but apparently his word has not been enough to convince everyone. Fellow travel agents have experienced the same concerns amongst customers, Martama said.
