Bali: Past wisdom a guide to the future - Tourism Indonesia

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Bali: Past wisdom a guide to the future

Bali, one of world’s favorite tourist destinations, has been the backbone of Indonesia’s tourism industry, with the majority of foreign tourist arrivals entry point, the island’s Ngurah Rai International Airport.

The island’s beautiful landscape, rich culture and traditions attract around 1.5 million foreign visitors every year.

“But its beauty and attractions have faded. Bali can no longer call itself a paradise island,” a participant from Poland commented during the UNFCCC side-event discussion on tourism here in Nusa Dua on Tuesday.

Bali’s beaches are eroding and degraded with rubbish scattered everywhere. The once green areas of rice fields are filled with concrete buildings. Streets are narrow and crowded with cars and motor cycles. Mangrove forests are gone and green belt areas are disappearing.

Even in the previously barren zone of the Nusa Dua luxury tourist enclave, developed with the assistance of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), many five-star hotels are not yet using eco-friendly energy, he added.

“Developments of tourism facilities are not supported by the adequate construction of infrastructures, making Bali an unattractive tourist destination,” he added.

Indonesian State Minister for Culture and Tourism, Jiro Wacik, and one of the panelists in the tourism discussion, admitted there were crucial problems in maintaining the natural and cultural environment of Bali.

“We (the Indonesian government and Bali provincial administration) have been making some progress in improving the island’s tourism master plan,” Wacik said.

Dr. Tom Goreau, an expert in coral conservation, added to the gloomy picture on the island of Bali. “Coral reefs in Bali were almost destroyed because of natural and human factors,” Goreau said.

“The local wisdoms within traditional communities in Indonesia are closely related with the environment. They are respecting and loving of the environment in the form of prohibitions or ceremonies. Those prohibitions and ceremonies become the traditions and culture of traditional communities,” former tourism minister I Gede Ardika said during a seminar on tourism in Sanur on Monday.

He explained that Indonesia is a nation with rich cultures and traditions, and one of the shared religious values held by its divergent people is “the balance life principle”.
The principle requires harmonious relations between human beings and God, among human beings, and between human beings and their natural environment.

He cited the three best examples of the country’s local wisdoms, the tumpek holiday in Bali, the sasi in Maluku Islands, and the nomad planting system of the Dayaks in Kalimantan.

1 comment:

  1. Amazing trip photo. I was thinking i will go with my best travel guides so that i could enjoy all the things so easily. Thank you so much for posting this amazing thing.

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