In Reply to: "burgeoning growth in visitor numbers" posted by Liku on Sunday, 21. August 2011 at 19:47 Bali Time:
One wonders how many non-Australian visitors ever return after their first ever visit to Bali.
After my first visit I thought I was wrong and returned to Bali after a couple of years. I wasn't wrong - Bali was even worse.
I haven't heard one of my friends and relatives tell me that they would like to ever return after having seen what may be called modern Bali. Yes, they have been on the road all over Bali and seen what there supposedly is to see. And they have travelled the world.
I have been told that Bali is now but an overrated, polluted and rather expensive dump with greedy inhabitants who take pride in cheating the visitors as soon as there is a chance, from arrival till departure. The amount of misbehaving tourists is surprisingly huge for such a small area when considering where most tourists stay. It seems as if a lot of various nationals have come to too much money too quickly but have no idea about culture and how to behave. These nationals now come from all over our ailing globe. And then there are those who quietly just come to enjoy the sun and a good book from their sun beds beneath an umbrella and would not disturb a fly but those Bali rule breakers are always ridiculed on the BTF.
Infrastructure is a mess and dirt is everywhere. The inhabitants don't care about their environment and add to the mess by throwing garbage everywhere and using the rivers and the ocean as toilets.
There must be a reason why the word 'tourism' sounds almost the same as the word 'terrorism'. One must be either blind or very naîve to suggest to anyone that Bali is a good destination to visit, be it once or over and over again.
Unfortunately many European mass-tourism destinations and other Asian resort islands are no better. So it is time to start tourism at home.