Bali Has Had Enough of ‘Naughty Tourists’ Who Have Sex in Public and Break Traffic Laws

But in recent weeks, he has started to become hesitant to share his nationality with new people. That’s because of other Russians who have made headlines drawing the ire of locals, from working illegally to breaking traffic laws and pulling off publicity stunts endangering public safety. 

“There were a lot of Russian cases during the pandemic,” he told VICE World News, requesting a pseudonym as it’s illegal for foreigners to work as tattoo artists in Bali. “They even start to argue like, ‘I act how I want to act.’ You know… like a ‘Karen.’”

“It became more and more cringy for me to say that I'm from Russia,” he said, adding that rising anti-foreigner sentiment in the past two months has made living on the island difficult.

But it’s not just Russians who are provoking the ire of Balinese locals. This month, amid a flurry of cases involving tourists’ misbehavior, Bali authorities have proposed a series of new policies to crack down on guests who disrespect the island’s laws and culture. In one particularly strange case, officials dished out bluntly aggressive retorts.

On March 2, about a dozen tourists at a homestay in Jimbaran, a coastal resort area in Bali, filed an official complaint against their neighbor, claiming that crowing roosters in the neighborhood were disrupting their sleep. The unusual complaint immediately sparked backlash from locals, who blamed the tourists for trying to silence the fowls, commonly reared on the island. 

Instead of mediating between the tourists and the rooster owner, top officials, including Bali’s tourism agency chief, urged the foreigners to respect local culture and even threatened them with deportation if they dared make another complaint. I Wayan Koster, the governor of Bali, told Balinese locals to raise more chickens.

“Keep as many chickens as you can,” Koster said on Sunday. “If they do not like the crow of roosters, then they don’t have to come to Bali.”

“We have no business dealing with such people.”

The owner of the account told VICE World News through messages that while most tourists are respectful of local culture, there are still a number of black sheep in the mix. 

“[Some foreigners] blatantly promote their business on social media while they’re illegal, and make their own ‘bubble’ within their community,” they said, requesting anonymity to avoid reprisals from the foreigners they’ve called out. 

“I also feel the government does not have a presence and these practices are just allowed to go on. It gives the impression that our law is toothless.”

This hostility may seem a little out-of-character coming from a holiday island that relies on tourists as its main economic driver, with Bali’s tourism industry accounting for 80 percent of the local economy before the pandemic. But now, some locals say they’ve seen enough bad behavior from foreigners on the island, after a string of high-profile incidents where tourists have shown a lack of respect. 

During the pandemic, tourists were caught breaking the island’s COVID-19 rules to throw massive parties, in another case two influencers painted on fake COVID masks for a prank. Last year, others were seen stripping naked at sacred religious sites to take photos, and having sex on a public beach. 

More recently, public scrutiny has centered around foreigners working without proper visas, taking up jobs as tattoo artists, tour guides, and sex workers. Locals are also angry that tourists have been flouting traffic rules, driving without appropriate attire or driving licenses, and customizing their license plates in violation of Indonesian traffic law.

Some think that this conduct by tourists has to do with Bali’s reputation as a paradise island where wanderlusting travelers can let loose. 

“I think Bali has always been seen… as the last paradise on earth,” Ravinjay Kuckreja, a PhD candidate studying Balinese culture at the Denpasar State Hindu University, told VICE World News. “The community is very welcoming. The Balinese are very friendly and hospitable.”  

“Sometimes foreigners don't completely understand that Bali is still a home for people. They see it as just this Disneyland that's there for their enjoyment and their pleasure.”

On Sunday, local police said that within a week, they had caught 171 foreign tourists who violated traffic laws, such as not wearing a helmet, not having a valid driver’s license, and using illegal license plates. The same day, Koster, the governor, said authorities were considering banning tourists from renting motorbikes entirely. 

“You [should] not roam about the island using motorbikes, without wearing shirts or clothes, no helmet, and even without a license,” he said. "If you are a tourist, then act like a tourist.”

Koster also announced that he had asked national ministries to revoke visas on arrival for Russians and Ukrainians, many of whom had arrived on the shores of Bali to avoid war back home, but found themselves the target of public condemnation for their stunts.

The issue has even sparked responses from national-level politicians, such as Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs and investment and a longtime aide of President Joko Widodo. 

“We do not need naughty tourists in Bali,” he said on March 9 while visiting Denpasar, Bali’s capital. “With careful research from the police and relevant authorities, we can make them persona non grata here.”

Daniel Chong Ka Leong, an associate professor of hospitality management at Malaysia’s Sunway University, who has researched the impact of mass tourism on Bali, told VICE World News that the government’s harsh stance is a departure from the accommodating attitude they’ve long held.

“The relationship between the local communities and these tourists is always between love and hate,” he said. “They need them as a very important source of income. Over the years, they've managed to find a neutral approach to unwelcomed behavior.”

Yet as the government ratchets up its restrictions on foreigners, the holiday island is still aiming to welcome 4.5 million tourists this year—almost double the 2.3 million tourists received in 2022.

For those like Sam, the tattoo artist, the recent wave of criticism against foreigners has forced him to lay low to avoid scrutiny. But at the same time, he’s also hopeful that the crackdown will ultimately help the island cultivate better-quality tourists. 

“I think the people who respect Bali will stay here and try to be as legal as possible,” he said. “The other people… they just are going to leave the island.”

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