The Indonesian island; Bali is set to shake things up for tourists and illegal workers by making it illegal for tourists to rent motorcycles and scooters and flagrantly break employment laws too.
The governor of Bali; Wayne Koster is cracking down on illegal working without visas, the thriving operation with fake documents and the frequent use of motorcycles and scooters to wander the island.
The major problem is that many of the tourists are riding without due care, fuelled by alcohol and drugs and this is causing a real and present danger on the roads.
This of course will have a dramatic effect on the tourism trade and has met with much criticism and push back from local traders especially those in the motorcycle rental sector.
If these plans are pushed through then many illegally residing and working in the idillic island may simple choose to uproot and take their nomadic lifestyles away with them…along with their spending power too.
The country has been rocked by a financial crisis during and post the pandemic and whilst the mainly muslim country is set to introduce more restrictive laws, many of these should not impact tourism, however Bali itself is mainly Hindu and thus more accepting of ‘Western’ cultures and habits. But that has not been without conflicting sensitivity either.
Whilst tourism is welcomed and necessary, it is also seen as a necessary evil. With some locals finally tiring of the so called ‘bad’ tourists who ruin the tranquility for the ‘good’ tourists.