In the laneways of Ubud, three elderly Chinese women smile as they take pictures of friends posing under a cascade of tropical flowers. Friends have moved back from Nanjing, and they were frequent travelers before the pandemic.
“Bali has a good and good scene. It’s cold in Nanjing now, so it’s time to come,” says Zhang Min*. I want to try everything. “
The women left for their little walk, but they came to Bali in a part that was once a ubiquitous site in global tourism hotspots – large groups of Chinese tourists.
Since the pandemic has closed international borders, these travel groups – along with almost all foreigners – disappeared. Indonesia, which relies on tourism for as much as 6% of its gross domestic product, is finding it difficult to welcome them, despite ongoing concerns about overtourism.
Since the borders have been reopened, the world has witnessed waves of mass “revenge travel” as people try to make up for lost time, and people from China was slower to recall. The country was one of the last to relax pandemic restrictions, and at the time it was also suffering from financial difficulties and a youth unemployment crisis.
In 2018, more than 2.13 million Chinese tourists visited Indonesia — more than all European countries combined, and second only to visitors from Malaysia. In 2021, the figure was just 54,000.
“Of course, we want to go back to the bonanza-era, pre-pandemic,” said Ni Made Ayu Marthini, Indonesia’s deputy minister for tourism marketing. Ayu Marthini says that she realized that the Chinese people are attached to their country when she came across a picture of a Balinese village in the southern province of Haman in China.
Indonesian tourism officials are in China for the second month, coordinating with major Chinese companies such as Huawei and booking giant Ctrip. It works with Chinese airlines to mark the “crown jewels” across Indonesia and reports on Douyin market sites such as swimming with whale sharks in Sumbawa’s Pink Beach Komodo National Park. Komodo Trips management says they have 100-150 Chinese customers taking three-day boat trips to Komodo Island every month.
In 2023 there were 788,000 Chinese visitors – about four times the previous year. This year it is Indonesia set a target of 1.5 million. The servants say that the small ones certainly like it recent volcanic eruption have had an impact, but they think the total will exceed 1 million by Christmas – still around half of pre-pandemic levels.
Zhang says that he and his family can be happy to travel, but not so easily younger people home.
“There is a lot of contentment around young Chinese people, but not the reality. Young people are under a lot of pressure,” he said. “Health, education and housing are a big burden on their shoulders.”
The Chinese government, increasingly concerned about foreign influence and surveillance, is also imposing social and political restrictions on citizens and the military at home. Media reports document some of the public’s work taxing employees’ request therefore the police can control who receives the travel.
In Ubud, the Guardian met a group of workers from a liquor company based in the city’s largest baijiu. A middle-aged man in the group says he came to Bali to relieve his stress because of the fast pace of life in China. Then, cautiously, he refers the questions to the guide of the road who says that he has taken the Chinese around the world, but “our soul has understood that it is best after traveling.”
Ayu Marthini says she has not confirmed the stories of passport confiscations, and does not appear to be concerned about any potential impact on their targets. But he says not only about numbers.
“The numbers are big, but that’s how it is” [attracting] responsible tourists, who spend big and in the experience,” he said. “Pre-pandemic we had more price groups” [from China]. Now more young people want to do independent travel.”
Ma Dan and his family are traveling with the 80 circle, but they say they will plan to travel independently again.
“When we go on a group tour, I can’t see more places even if I want to,” said Ma. “If I set out on my own, I will slow down a little, and stay a day if I want a place.”
It should also be hoped that a wider “distribution of travelers” would be possible needle thread between receiving the tourist dollar and preventing it overtourism.
Bali remains the most popular Indonesian destination for Chinese visitors – with nearly 48,000 visits in July alone, about a third of all Chinese visitors to Indonesia that month.
Indonesia’s tourism minister Santiago Uno warned in August that even a 10% increase in visitors to Bali would push it into “overtourism”, and the government suspended construction of new hotels, resorts and villas in some parts of the island.
Marthini, who is Balinese herself, says that on a per capita basis Bali does not have the ultimate number of visitors, but they are concentrated in the southern and central parts of the island.
“We don’t need to make pairs. If you want to have Bali forever, you have to protect the people,” he said. “Of course you can imitate, but there is only one Bali.”
* Some names have been changed