Tourism, Culture and Society

Bali
Bali which has been ranked as the first in terms of popularity among tourist-destination areas in Indonesia is located between Java Island to the west and Lombok Island to the east. Being one of the 33 provinces in Indonesia, it is divided into 8 territories and 1 captial city Denpasar. As of 2009, it has a population of 3.9 million.



Map of Bali, credits to indahnesia

Religion
With more than 85% of the Indonesian population being Muslims, Bali is the only country in Indonesia to have 93.2% of Hindus population. Minority religions include Islam 4.79%, Christianity 1.38% and Buddhist 0.64%.

Language
The most widely spoken languages in Bali are Balinese its local dialect, Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) . Most of the Balinese are bilingual or trilingual with the third language being English. Due to tourism being the main source of income for Bali, English has become a common language

Economy
In 2008, the national tourism income achieved revenues of around Rp 80 trillion (US$7.1 billion) which was an increase of 16 percent from 2007. While in 2009, the average income per capita was 12 million Rupiah ($1,200), this was reported by Jakarta post.

Foreign Arrivals
Direct foreign arrivals refer to tourists flying straight from their home and into Bali. The graph below shows the foreign arrivals for alternate years since 1969 to 2007. The direct foreign arrivals have been steadily increasing for the past years. Despite the drop in 2003 and 2005 due to the Bali bombings, tourist arrivals still reached a large number of 1.8 million.

Source: Tourism Research, A 20-20 Vision

Bali and tourism
The tropical island is renowned for its beautiful beaches and rich culture. Known as a paradise to many, Bali was first introduced to tourism in the 1930s by foreigners who came. It is indeed a beautiful island claiming numerous tourism awards like "World Best Island in Asia 2010" from 2001 to 2010. This was awarded by a travel magazine based in New York, Travel & Leisure. Since 1998, the island has received 20 travel and tourism awards.

Bali is a currently a world famous tourist destination but the question is how has tourism changed Bali? Has is benefited Bali or caused unnecessary damage to their culture, environment and traditions?