Jakarta. The Indonesian government has had enough of Bali being overcrowded by unruly foreigners.

Bali has earned worldwide recognition as a tourist paradise. However, the province has seen countless episodes of foreigners misbehaving ranging from violating traffic regulations to even stripping naked at a Bali temple. Senior minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan recently revealed that these foreigners set up what he called “nude clubs”.

The former army general also does not want foreign citizens to take jobs away from locals. According to Luhut, over 200,000 foreign citizens currently reside in Bali.

“But they also create problems. We’d like to maintain the culture of Bali. Without its culture, Bali is no longer a paradise island. We should respect the local cultures. Bali is not a nude island,”  Luhut said at the recent 2024 International Quality Tourists Conference on Thursday. 

Luhut also brought up Bali’s waste problems, even saying that the province will step up its efforts to be free of trash for the next year. 

Indonesia is also currently preparing regulations aimed at disciplining bad foreign tourists. The government will hold a meeting on these regulations next week to finalize the rules. The Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP) would also audit some areas in Bali to find out what is really going on there, Luhut said. The immigration office will also beef up its inspection of international travelers in Bali, among others, to prevent job-stealing from locals. 

If the overall tourism volume decreases as the country gets tough on foreign travelers, the government can focus on attracting Indonesians from other regions into Bali to fill the gap, according to Luhut.

“Domestic tourists are very important to us. Foreign tourists will bring problems and narcotic gangs. And we can just deport [these unruly foreigners]. … We’d like to see Bali with a very friendly aura and beautiful culture. ... We don’t want to see paddy fields converted to nude clubs or restaurants,” Luhut told the conference.