Kemenparekraf Denies Bali Occurs Overtourism

Adyatama Tourism And Creative Economy Main Expert Nia Niscaya. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) denies that there is an overtourism or excess tourist in Bali from a statistical point of view, and states that the problem is in the distribution of less equitable tourists.

"I think, if you say overtourism, in terms of statistics, it doesn't seem like it yet," said Adyatama of Tourism and Creative Economy, Nia Niscaya's Main Expert in "The Weekly Brief with Sandi Uno" (WBSU), in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Tuesday, April 30.

Nia explained, in 2019, of the 16.11 million foreign tourists to Indonesia, 6.3 million foreign tourists visited Bali.

"What about 2023? From a total of 11.68 million nationally, to Bali 5.2 million. The percentage is visible. It hasn't returned to pre-pandemic times," he said.

Furthermore, he also explained that there were 10.5 million domestic tourists to Bali in 2019. In 2023, he said, as many as 9.8 million tourists.

"So, from a statistical point of view, it seems that it is not overtourism. However, there may be a factor of spread whose concentration is in the south," said Nia.

On this occasion, the Head of the Bali Province Tourism Office (Dispar) Tjok Bagus Pemayun said that his party was working on equitable tourist visits, especially foreign tourists, to several tourism areas.

"We in Bali have compiled travel patterns, travel patterns, for how we will distribute tourists. We direct them to North Bali, East Bali, and West Bali, so that the impression of overtourism does not exist," said Tjok Bagus.

The government has made a number of efforts to fix tourism attractions on the other side of Bali, such as fixing Besakih Temple located in Karangasem Regency (East Bali), building Turyapada towers in Buleleng Regency (North Bali), to toll road construction from West Bali to Mengwi, Badung Regency.

"Hopefully, with the attractions we have created and there are several attractions that have improved, including accessibility, overtourism, we can minimize," said Tjok Bagus.