Destinations known | Bali has had enough of begpackers: freeloading travellers to be sent packing
- Foreign tourists who beg for money to help fund their travels have become an increasingly familiar sight on the Indonesian island
- Immigration officials have vowed to send begpackers straight to their embassies
A product of the sort of entitlement only privilege affords, the begpacker has become a scourge across Asia, affecting everywhere from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur, as well as here in Hong Kong. Almost always white, the bedraggled begpacker often clutches a handwritten sign appealing for help. “I am travelling around Asia without money. Please support my trip,” they might entreat passers-by, blissfully unaware that the cost of their round-the-region journey probably exceeds the annual earnings of the local residents they purblindly petition for help.
In Bali, begpackers have become such an issue that authorities have had enough.
“We have seen many cases of problematic tourists, lately they are either Australian, British or Russian,” Setyo Budiwardoyo, who works at the Immigration Office of Ngurah Rai, in Bali, told Indonesian-language news portal Detik on June 25. “Foreign tourists who run out of money or are pretending to be beggars, we will send them to their respective embassies,” he said.
The idea of touching down in a country knowing you don’t have the financial means to support yourself is surely unimaginable to all but the most self-indulgent traveller. Particularly in a place where the tourist dollar (or rupiah) means such a lot to the local community.