In Reply to: Hotels doing it hard posted by Angela on Friday, 27. January 2006 at 10:28 Bali Time:
A tourist will stay in a hotel - that's a given. And each and every hotel employs staff, no? By staying at Hotel X a tourist is keeping jobs open there in that particular hotel BUT by not staying at Hotel Y a job may be lost there. That is the crux of it.
It's the overall number of tourists that affect employment rates in Hotels, not where an individual tourist chooses to stay.
In any case I doubt that the majority of hotels are owned by Balinese - the small shops and stalls ARE Balinese-owned, however - department stores & chains excepted, of course.
It's an individual choice. My preference is for cheaper accommodation so I have more money to spend on restaurants & shopping. The size of the pool or the variety at brekky is largely irrelevant to me, altho I appreciate that such things are of consequence to others, especially those with kids:) If you prefer to stay in the upmarket places owned by non-Balinese, eat at foreign owned chain places, shop at non-Balinese owned shops, that's fine and entirely your business. Just as where I choose to stay, the amount I spend on accommodation, and where I choose to spend my money is MY business.