Governor Wayan Coster said foreigners “mostly Russians” were breaking more and more laws while in Bali, and the island could be subject to a tourist quota system. His words were quoted by the detikNews portal.
According to the governor, a large number of tourists who committed crimes appeared on the island, and “most of them are from Russia.” He noted that 101 foreigners, including 27 Russians, have been deported from Bali since January 2023. According to his estimates, about 50 thousand citizens of the Russian Federation currently reside in Bali.
“So we will no longer have a mass tourism policy, we will limit it by introducing a quota system for the next 100 years. If we let this continue for too long, less and less well-off tourists will come to the country. “Most of them will eat rice, ride motorcycles, break the rules and then rob cash machines,” he said.
Coster noted that he will discuss the issue of tourist quotas with the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurants Association and other relevant institutions and departments. The governor suggests that tourists will need to plan and apply for their vacation on the island about a year in advance.
Former President of Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri, was also outraged by the violations by tourists. She supported the restrictive measures and reported the situation and possible solutions to President Joko Widodo.
On March 13, Governor Koster proposed abolishing the simplified procedure for issuing visas to citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine. According to him, the reason for such measures was complaints of “abuse of hospitality” by tourists from local residents and services, who also did not like that foreigners did not leave the island after the holiday was over, but stayed there and took their jobs. Balinese Also, Koster has banned tourists from renting motorcycles due to the increased frequency of accidents due to his own fault.
According to the Indonesian government, in 2022, about 60 thousand tourists from Russia flew to the island, and in January 2023 alone, 22.5 thousand Russian registrations were made at Denpasar Airport (the island’s capital). The government states that about 10 times fewer Ukrainians come, respectively, and there are fewer complaints about them.
Locals, who complain about jobs being taken over by foreigners, are concerned about the professions of taxi drivers, hairdressers, nannies and fitness instructors. The biggest concern of the local people is the occupation of jobs in tourism and entertainment. For example, many citizens of the Russian Federation and Ukraine were among the instructors of surfing and mountaineering.
Balinese took up the fight against foreigners themselves: at the end of 2022, one of the local residents opened an Instagram account (the owner of Meta was recognized as an extremist in Russia and was banned) “Moscow Cabang Bali” (“Moscow Branch of Bali) ”), visitors Screenshots of announcements by Russians and other foreigners advertising various services for The profiler denies complaints about the xenophobic nature of the project and claims that the page contains data on the illegal activities of Russians, Ukrainians, British and Australians. He believes that the Russians do not respect the locals, “which is why they advertise their services so openly, knowing that this activity is illegal.”
Also on the page are videos of tourists who, according to the locals, act too provocatively or, according to the author of the project, misbehave in relation to local customs.
Thus, the Russians were expelled from Bali for various “inappropriate” violations. On May 4, local authorities decided to deport two Russian citizens for their disrespectful behavior at the Hindu temple complex of Pura Besakih – they danced and posed in inappropriate clothes there, despite comments from locals. In early April, blogger Yuri Chilikin was deported from the island after a video of him posing with his bare hips on the sacred Mount Agung was posted on the Web.
In general, Indonesian authorities do not yet have a unified position on imposing restrictions on the tourism sector. That is why Angiat Napitupulu, head of Bali’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said that free entry for citizens of other countries is an important part of national policy, so such decisions should be taken at the level of authorities. federal government. According to him, although the problems are mostly solved in Bali, it is necessary to take into account the views of representatives of other regions of Indonesia.