‘We are too open with tourists’: Bali to rethink temple visits
Picture of Danish tourist sitting on shrine reserved for highest Hindu deity the last straw for authorities on Indonesian island, who will consider whether visitors can continue touring sacred sites unaccompanied
Authorities in Bali have vowed to stop holidaymakers in bikinis posing in front of sacred temples, as they lament a decline in the “quality of tourists” visiting the island.
Bali deputy governor Tjokorda Oka Artha Sukawati, known as Cok Ace, said the authorities had been concerned by a recent rise in disrespectful behaviour by tourists visiting Bali’s hundreds of sacred Hindu sites.
Are Chinese tourists ‘cheapening’ Bali’s image?
“This is the government’s attempt to maintain the Pura [temples],” said Cok Ace at a regional council meeting last week. “The temples need to be preserved since they are the spirits of Bali’s cultures and customs.”
He said in the coming weeks authorities would be re-evaluating the system that allows tourists to visit temples unaccompanied.
Bali has become an increasingly popular tourist destination over the past few years, attracting over five million visitors in 2017, with many drawn to the island’s unique Hindu temples.