Alesya Kafelnikova Posing Naked On A Sumatran Elephant, Bali Tourism Office Responds

DENPASAR - Russian citizen Alesya Kafelnikova is in the spotlight after posing naked on an elephant in the tourist area of Gianyar Regency, Bali.

Alesya had posted the video on her personal Instagram account. However, the post was deleted.

The video, which shows a naked Alesya on an elephant, is less than 3 seconds long. The video also went viral on social media. Alesya Kafelnikova is the daughter of former world number one tennis player Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Bali Provincial Tourism Office, Putu Astawa, responded to the viral video. He said what Alesya was doing was against the norms and wisdom of local Balinese culture.

"My response, as the Head of Tourism Office, is certainly not in accordance with the concept of Balinese cultural tourism. That is, it is against the norms, local wisdom, especially when sharing on social media is not appropriate", said Astawa, when contacted Tuesday, February 23.

"It is not tourism like that we want. Bali tourism is cultural tourism that really respects the values of local wisdom and norms in accordance with Balinese culture", he added.

He also said that so far, his party together with other stakeholders has often carried out education about norms and culture to foreign tourists who are going to Bali to respect Balinese culture.

"We keep doing that, both through our tourism stakeholders, but tourists who come to Bali can keep changing and changing. So, they never stop increasing their knowledge of local wisdom that applies in accordance with our norms in Bali", he explained.

Astawa said that his party would standardize guides, hotels, and transportation so that tourism in Bali would be better and the same event would not occur.

"Of course, internally what we have to do is go through a standardization process, apart from increasing the socialization of local regulations", said Astawa.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the Bali Ministry of Law and Human Rights Kanwil Surya Dharma will investigate the matter and will coordinate with the Immigration Office in Bali. "We cannot issue a statement yet. Let us first coordinate with immigration staff", said Surya.