Bali bikini ban: Indonesian holiday island considers outlawing skimpy swimwear after residents say they’re fed up with ‘offensive’ western tourists
- Authorities in Bali want to stop visitors from wearing bikinis at their temples
- The proposed restrictions comes after recent tourist incidents drew outrage
- A government official said ‘the quality of tourists’ has decreased in recent years
- The island’s popularity has surged – with more than five million visitors in 2017
Authorities in Bali are planning on stopping tourists from posing in bikinis in front of sacred temples – after criticising the ‘quality of tourists’ visiting the Indonesian island.
The island has become one of south-east Asia’s most popular tourist destinations for westerners in recent years, and attracted more than five million visitors last year.
But the increase in popularity has come at a price for the local population, with a Danish tourist’s photo of himself sitting on the Linggih Padmasana shrine drawing outrage earlier this month.
Authorities in Bali are planning on stopping tourists from posing in bikinis in front of sacred temples – after criticising the ‘quality of tourists’ visiting the Indonesian island (pictured tourist posing in front of erupting volcano)
The shrine is reserved for Balinese Hinduism’s most important deity, and it is considered offensive for tourists to sit on it.
Seemingly prompted by the tourist’s actions, Bali deputy governor Cok Ace told a regional council meeting last week that the government was concerned by a recent rise in disrespectful behaviour.
‘This is the government’s attempt to maintain the Pura,’ he told The Guardian.
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‘The temples need to be reserved since they are the spirits of Bali’s cultures and customs.’
The newly appointed Bali government also said the recent surge in visitors was having a negative impact on the island.
Cok Ace said: ‘We are too open with tourists – so to many come – and the quality of toursits is now different from before.’
Bali deputy governor Cok Ace (pictured) told a regional council meeting that the government was concerned by a recent rise in disrespectful behaviour
The proposed crackdown follows a move by Cambodian authorities in 2016 to stop tourists from wearing skimpy clothing
The newly appointed Bali government also said the recent surge in visitors was having a negative impact on the island (pictured a bikini-clad woman performing the downward dog yoga position in front of another Balinese temple)
He said: ‘The temples need to be reserved since they are the spirits of Bali’s cultures and customs’
The island has become one of south-east Asia’s most popular tourist destinations for westerners in recent years, and attracted more than five million visitors last year
In 2016, a picture of a bikini-clad woman performing the downward dog yoga position in front of another Balinese temple provoked a storm of criticism on social media.
And in 2017, western tourists flooded Instagram with shots of them posing seductively in front of Bali’s Mount Agung volcano as it spewed out columns of black ash and threatened to erupt.
The proposed crackdown follows a move by Cambodian authorities in 2016 to stop tourists from wearing skimpy clothing – which included a ban on clothing which exposed knees and shoulders.
In 2017, western tourists flooded Instagram with shots of them posing seductively in front of Bali’s Mount Agung volcano as it spewed out columns of black ash and threatened to erupt
The proposed crackdown follows a move by Cambodian authorities in 2016 to stop tourists from wearing skimpy clothing – which included a ban on clothing which exposed knees and shoulders
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