Indonesia hopes ‘new Bali’ will drive tourism boom but the locals of Lombok are unconvinced

Following his re-election, Indonesian President Joko Widodo will proceed with an ambitious plan to develop 10 new tourist destinations, including Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara province, an island 30 minutes from Bali by plane.

Widodo last week visited the special economic zone of Mandalika in southern Lombok, where more than 17 trillion rupiah (US$1.2 billion) has been invested since 2014. Widodo reaffirmed his commitment to upgrading the island into a “high-standard” destination, with one eye on the Moto Grand Prix race to be hosted in Mandalika in 2021. He also hopes new infrastructure will stimulate tourism in the area and help it realise its potential as “the new Bali”.

The locals, though, are not convinced. Lombok was devastated by earthquakes last year and is yet to recover. Furthermore, even though visitor numbers have plummeted and the locals have grown increasingly desperate, many would prefer Lombok remain a low-key destination, without the crowds or party atmosphere that have overwhelmed Bali.

“We have built facilities [in Mandalika] such as public toilets that we built according to high standards, so we can prevent mismanagement in this god-given beautiful region,” Widodo told reporters. “We are also expanding [Lombok] airport and road access to Mandalika. We want these to be completed soon. We are doing this not only because we are going to host a Moto Grand Prix race, but to provide access into Mandalika so we can develop it into a new Bali.”

Lombok has also attracted foreign investment. Budget airline AirAsia recently opened an operational hub in Lombok – its fifth hub in Indonesia – and plans to offer an international route connecting Lombok to Perth in Australia, as well as domestic routes from Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali.

After domestic Malaysian tourists, Australian visitors are the second-biggest market for Lombok, ahead of Europeans.

Few Indonesian destinations rival Bali’s international appeal. However, the sheer volume of visitors to Bali has begun to take a toll on the environment, hence the government’s plan to establish 10 new destinations.

These include the diving hot spots of Mandalika in West Nusa Tenggara, Wakatobi in South Sulawesi, Morotai in Maluku, Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara, and the Unesco heritage site in Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta and the country’s largest freshwater lake, Toba in North Sumatra.

Lombok’s islets of Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan are already popular as getaways for visitors seeking to avoid the crowds of Bali. The main island of Lombok, though, still has untapped potential.

However, efforts to attract more tourists suffered a setback last year when Lombok was rocked by three earthquakes in July and August, killing about 600 people. The 6.9-magnitude quake on August 5 was the largest to ever hit the island.

Anton Hermanto, a 34-year-old father of four, worked as a guide on Mount Rinjani. When it closed, he took a lower-paid job at a hotel in Gili Air to feed his family.

“I had been a Rinjani guide for nine years but with the summit closed I had to find another job,” Hermanto says. “My income as a guide was higher than working in a hotel.”

Lombok’s tourism went from ‘high season to nothing’ after quake

According to official estimates, the quake inflicted 12 trillion rupiah worth of damage and cost Indonesia a further 1.4 trillion rupiah in tourism revenue. Lombok welcomed 5,713 foreign tourists in January and February this year, less than half the 11,786 visitors in the same period in 2018.

“It’s been eight months but everywhere is still quiet here, I don’t know when it will be normal again,” says Azwardi Hakim, who sells bracelets on the deserted Nipah Beach in northern Lombok. “It seems like tourists prefer Gili islands to Lombok because the renovation after the quake is faster there.”

Bilal Asegaf also sells souvenirs on Nipah. The 39 year-old father of two used to work in an Italian-owned hotel but the building was destroyed by one of the quakes. Now, like many others in Lombok, he lives in a tent with his family, waiting for the government’s promised handout of 50 million rupiah to fix their houses.

Despite his desperation and the government’s plan to attract more tourists to Lombok, Asegaf would prefer the island retain the low-key charm that made it unique.

“I hope more tourists come to Lombok but I don’t want it to turn into Bali,” he says. “People like it here because it’s less crowded. It reminded people of Bali in the old days.”

Asegaf also worries about increased land prices in the event of a tourism boom. They have already spiked, due to the Mandalika construction project, and locals fear being priced out of the market.

“That will make it hard for me to afford land,” Asegaf says. “I hope investors don’t buy all the land so I can build a house on my own land.”

These concerns echo all the way from the empty beaches to the provincial tourism agency, which has marketed Lombok as friendly, religiously conservative, family-oriented destination.

“Just because we are picked as one of the 10 ‘new Balis’ doesn’t mean that we have to be exactly like Bali,” says Lalu Muhammad Faozal, head of West Nusa Tenggara tourism agency. “We are staying true to our brand as a friendly destination. In fact, we are marketing Lombok as one of the halal tourism destinations in Indonesia.”

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Concerns about drug use are also a factor. Last week, an Indonesian court sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfun to death after he was arrested in September at Lombok airport carrying more than 3kg of drugs, including ecstasy and other amphetamines. He escaped from a West Nusa Tenggara police detention centre in January but was apprehended two weeks later.

“We certainly don’t want our region to be a potential market for drugs. Lombok is still religious, not as bad as Bali [in terms of drug use] and we want it to stay that way,” Faozal says. “We hope [the police] will be more reactive once Lombok develops into a more [popular] destination.”

Although locals would welcome greater access into Lombok, allowing them to be less dependent on tourists inbound from Bali, there is real anxiety about the pace of change and its long-term effects.

“I want Lombok to keep its natural [beauty] like now, ” says Hakim on Nipah beach. “I want more customers, but I don’t want to have to work in Bali.”