Bali sees tourism fading

The sun-kissed island of Bali has escaped the violence elsewhere in Indonesia, but its effects are still plain to see.

The sun-kissed island of Bali has escaped the violence elsewhere in Indonesia, but its effects are still plain to see.

Since Australian surfers discovered its rolling waves and crystal waters in the early 1960s, the mainly Hindu island of Bali has undergone a drastic transformation.

The Australians have been joined by package holiday tourists from Europe, Asia and North America eager to spend a week or two in paradise with everything laid on. They brought prosperity to an otherwise neglected part of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago.

Over the past three decades Bali has turned from an agricultural economy to one where most of its four million people make their living from tourism, either directly through hotels and restaurants or indirectly through garment- and souvenir-making.

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Now many of Bali's hotels and losmans, small family-run hotels, lie almost empty and restaurants boast more staff than customers for most of the day as tourists numbers, already at a seasonal low, are hit by the Indonesian crisis.

In the tourist centre of Kuta endless rows of shopkeepers stand around, flagging down the odd tourist. Most people just walk on by.

The island has become a paradise for the budget traveller. Restaurants in the nearby resort town of Sanur, where there are rows of empty tables, offer a fish curry or a chicken satay dish for under 10,000 rupiah, or less than $1. A beer costs even less and a day-long taxi-ride around the island costs around $5. A three-star hotel at Legian Beach offers rooms for $40 a night - a couple of minutes' haggling sees the price cut by more than half.