Indonesia’s tourist resort island of Bali has proposed a ban lasting a year or two on the construction of hotels, villas and nightclubs in some areas, as it grapples with the problem of overdevelopment of land, its governor told reporters.
The plan has been suggested to the central government, which wants to reform tourism on Bali, one of Indonesia’s main attractions, in a bid to boost tourism quality and jobs while preserving the island’s indigenous culture.
The moratorium on the busy areas of Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar, and Tabanan takes aim at overdevelopment for commercial purposes, such as beach clubs, Bali Interim Governor Sang Made Mahendra Jaya said.
Photo: Reuters
“We want to reform it,” the news Web site Detik quoted him as saying.
“Hopefully, there will be an instruction related to the moratorium on the construction of hotels, villas, discotheques and beach clubs ... for one to two years,” he said.
The governor’s office and the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The government would discuss the plan for a two-year moratorium, which could stretch up to 10 years, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan has said, the Jakarta Post reported.
His ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Luhut said that about 200,000 foreigners now live in Bali, contributing to problems such as crime, overdevelopment and competition for jobs.
Foreign arrivals in Bali have surged since it reopened for tourism after the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos of misbehaving tourists often go viral, angering residents and sparking harsh responses from social media users in Indonesia.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done