balinews

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Feb 14, 2010
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The Bali governor is considering imposing a moratorium on hotel development in Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar to balance tourism development in the island.

Made Mangku Pastika said on Wednesday that he had received the assessment report done by the Tourism Ministry’s team, which stated there is an oversupply of hotel rooms in the island’s main tourist destinations.

“It is recommended that there should be no more hotel investment in Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar until 2015.

Instead, the hotel investments would better be directed to areas such as Buleleng, Bangli, Karangasem and Jembrana,” he said.

However, the introduction of the moratorium must be first consulted with the island’s regent chiefs. Pastika said that, under the Autonomy Law, the regent chiefs are the ones authorized to issue building permits, not the provincial government.

Ida Bagus Ngurah Wijaya, chairman of Bali Tourism Board, said South Bali has been the major destination for tourists because other parts of Bali are lacking in infrastructure.

“To bring tourists to another part of Bali, the government needs to build and improve the infrastructure, especially the access road,” he said.

Wijaya agreed with the idea of imposing a moratorium on the construction of new hotels in South Bali, but he said the plan is likely to present problems for the economy.

“As regional autonomy is implemented in the province and the regional government depends on the regional income, it might be difficult to stop giving permits to the investors because the tourism business has been the major [source of income] for the local government,” he said.

Provincial spokesman Ketut Teneng said he had not yet received a copy of the report done by the tourism ministry’s assessment team.

However, Teneng said the call for a development moratorium would be seriously considered.

He also called on tourism industry authorities in Bali to do their own assessment, which can serve as a supporting document during the deliberations on the moratorium issue.

According to the ministry’s assessment team, Bali currently has 55,000 hotel rooms which is 9,800 more of the ideal number of rooms.

I Gede Pitana Brahmananda, the head of the ministry’s Culture and Tourism Resources Unit, said if the governor fails to issue a regulation stopping hotel construction, Bali will eventually suffer from overdevelopment.

“The governor needs to issue the regulation as soon as possible because if they do not issue it, they cannot stop investors from building hotels in Bali,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardhana Sukawati, the Gianyar regent chief, said the moratorium should be implemented selectively in order to avoid unhealthy competition among local investors.

He suggested that only developers that plan to impose accommodation rates at $1,000 (Rp 9 million) per night or more should be allowed to proceed with building new hotels.

“There are already thousands of rooms within the price range of $100 - $500 per night,” he said, adding that the island should now focus on attracting high spenders in order to promote a more exclusive image of Bali tourism.


Ministry Report Pushes Bali Governor to Consider Construction Moratorium - The Jakarta Globe
 

matsaleh

Super Moderator
May 26, 2004
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Legian, Bali
How many times have we heard this story? For at least 5 years, that I can remember.

As long as there's money being backhanded to Jakarta, the hotel building will continue. :icon_evil:
 

spicyayam

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Jan 12, 2009
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I agree that something needs to be done about the development that is currently out of control in Bali. A moratorium isn't necessarily the answer though. There needs to be some kind of urban planning done especially with creating real green zones and the necessary infrastructure.
.
Instead, the hotel investments would better be directed to areas such as Buleleng, Bangli, Karangasem and Jembrana,” he said.

At least in Buleleng there is already an oversupply of hotels, so I don't think that by building more of the same hotels will necessarily help the region.
 

Markit

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Sep 3, 2007
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Reading an article in today's Bali News recalled this thread and I thought I'd see if someone out there could possibly enlighten me?

The article was completed by the following sentence: "A lack of understanding on just how dire the oversupply of hotel rooms has become among Denpasar and Badung officials who sign the “lucrative” permits for new projects suggests that the worst is yet to come in the continuing decline of the Island’s once proud hotel sector.

Whether greed or incompetence drives the eagerness of Denpasar and Badung officials to grant new accommodation licenses, the disastrous results are much the same and increasingly self-evident
."

This article and the previous one from several years ago all seem to make the same, to my thinking - wrong, conclusion. Namely that the regulating officials are somehow responsible the oversupply of hotel rooms on Bali.

Not the idiots that are issuing ("lucrative" re: article) permits to build them. But the idiots that are building them?

Anyone with links to the hotel trade have a clue what's going on?
 

spicyayam

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Jan 12, 2009
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I remember when I first moved here I read how the government wasn't issuing new permits for villas/hotels. I was a bit disappointed as I thought that would be a good business to start. I then mentioned it to a builder/architect in one of the first weeks I arrived on the island and he just laughed and start listing off all the people he knew in the government.

It seems like the only people who think rampant development is bad are foreigners. Have you ever met a young person who wants to work as a rice farmer? For sure it is sad that the ricefields are being lost, but it kind of seems inevitable. It seems like there is zero motivation by the government to control development in any way.

I am sure someone will return to this thread in 5 years time saying how nothing has changed.
 

Markit

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Sep 3, 2007
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But that misses the point IMHO, if the island had over-capacity 5 years ago and the building has gone on uninterrupted, as we know it has, who is doing all this "useless" building?

All the major builds in the last 5 years have been from international/global companies.

These guys don't build stuff and just kinda hope someone comes along and fancies a room for a night or 2. They do massive due diligence and have rooms full of the cleverest muthafukas doing the maths and the plans before one brick is laid anywhere.

Arrival numbers are way up but hotel occupancy is way down....?! Does anyone else see an "issue" here?

On the other hand one of the prime hotel locations on Bali, the Hyatt in Sanur has remained closed for "refurbishment" for 4/5 years now.

I don't understand...
 

spicyayam

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Jan 12, 2009
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Arrival numbers are way up but hotel occupancy is way down....?! Does anyone else see an "issue" here?

Are you saying hotels "under report" their guests? Surely not. Or is everyone staying in Airbnbs or these 'illegal' villas?
 

DenpasarHouse

Active Member
Aug 13, 2013
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I'm not sure why it's disastrous. Isn't it only private investor's money at stake?

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake. This is the same article Markit referred to. Nothing new to see here, carry on.
 

JohnnyCool

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Jan 10, 2009
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The Bali Discovery article is quite sobering. A hefty wake-up call for all those who are still pushing to build even more non-sustainable hotels here.
...If, however, Bali assumes the number of 130,000 room number is largely correct, this translates into 47,450,000 hotel room nights for sale in a single year.
That's 912, 500 per week. And those figures only apply to registered hotel rooms. It's anybody's guess what the actual numbers are (2+ million/week?).
Much of the island is already creaking at the seams with no realistic solutions in sight. It may already be past the point of no return. If the "reclamation" of Benoa Harbour goes ahead, it will be the zenith of governments' incompetence and an environmental disaster of the first magnitude.
...the worst is yet to come in the continuing decline of the Island’s once proud hotel sector...
Indeed.

...These guys don't build stuff and just kinda hope someone comes along and fancies a room for a night or 2. They do massive due diligence and have rooms full of the cleverest muthafukas doing the maths and the plans before one brick is laid anywhere.
Those "cleverest muthafukas" will fill their hotels how? Maybe they're not very good at maths after all.
 

Markit

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Sep 3, 2007
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I only read "sobering" articles in the morning so as not to waste my money in the afternoon. Having said that your post makes no sense. Possibly having to do with the time of night. Mimpi manis.... and the clever muthafukas are there ONLY to fill their hotels - it's called Marketing - muthafuka!
 

begonia

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Oct 10, 2007
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I was yesterday around Sunset Road in Kuta-Seminyak and I was shocked to see so many new hotels (new for me at least) and ugly ones, really not at all the kind of hotels I will be on holidays at least travelling to Asian countries, the ones which looks like a box of modern apartments, without charming, without spirit, just plain flat simple hotels for sleeping and having a, sorry, "boring" holidays (for me at least they are boring buildings). the kind like on Benidorm, just for people coming to the island to spend time on the beach and on the bars and restaurants in Kuta.
I see a trend on this kind of hotels, even in Ubud and around Ubud areas, with attach rooms like boxes and all the rooms inside looks exactly the same, you could be any place on the world inside of the room, clean, beautiful and modern but not for me. What a huge contrasts Bali has!
When I go around to the countryside outside of tourists areas, it is quite a nightmare to come back to Ubud or to the south of Bali, it is so different, so much contrast.
I live in Ubud now and I don't like it anymore, I wish I could move to a more peaceful place and a really countryside feeling and experience, I don't know how much I will can copy with all the traffic and motorbikes, sometimes it gets me mad really...............
By the way, It is hard to believe all these hotels has occupancy and I have not idea but I think the most of them belongs to Jakarta rich people or companies.
 

geedee

Member
Feb 1, 2014
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I was yesterday around Sunset Road in Kuta-Seminyak and I was shocked to see so many new hotels (new for me at least) and ugly ones, really not at all the kind of hotels I will be on holidays at least travelling to Asian countries, the ones which looks like a box of modern apartments, without charming, without spirit, just plain flat simple hotels for sleeping and having a, sorry, "boring" holidays (for me at least they are boring buildings). the kind like on Benidorm, just for people coming to the island to spend time on the beach and on the bars and restaurants in Kuta.
I see a trend on this kind of hotels, even in Ubud and around Ubud areas, with attach rooms like boxes and all the rooms inside looks exactly the same, you could be any place on the world inside of the room, clean, beautiful and modern but not for me. What a huge contrasts Bali has!
When I go around to the countryside outside of tourists areas, it is quite a nightmare to come back to Ubud or to the south of Bali, it is so different, so much contrast.
I live in Ubud now and I don't like it anymore, I wish I could move to a more peaceful place and a really countryside feeling and experience, I don't know how much I will can copy with all the traffic and motorbikes, sometimes it gets me mad really...............
By the way, It is hard to believe all these hotels has occupancy and I have not idea but I think the most of them belongs to Jakarta rich people or companies.

Ah Benidorm brings back fond memories i loved it but that was 30 years ago
But i know that exactly what you mean and Ubud not really traditional now too many coaches and tourists.
I don't know very much about Bali but Markits area in East Bali did appeal to me(even although he lives there) its a lot more traditional and friendly.
 

mimpimanis

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Nov 4, 2003
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www.mimpimanis.com
I only read "sobering" articles in the morning so as not to waste my money in the afternoon. Having said that your post makes no sense. Possibly having to do with the time of night. Mimpi manis.... and the clever muthafukas are there ONLY to fill their hotels - it's called Marketing - muthafuka!

We struggle to fill our rooms these days. For the first 10 years or so, we would fill them with direct bookings and walk ins. However these days most people seem to book through booking engines like Booking.com. So we had to start selling through them and paying them 15% commission on every booking. But because here in Kuta, Lombok we have gone from about 20 accommodation options when we opened to about 250 there is much more competition and everyone is cutting their prices. So We are not filling our rooms, we are charging less and we are paying commission on the rooms we do sell. Good for the travellers but not so good for those running businesses here or for the locals either. For instance we would employ more staff if we could afford it. We opened a dormitory in December to cater for single backpackers. Sometimes I am selling a bed for as little as Rp80,000 inc breakfast. These travellers spending the least tend to be the most demanding too, expecting all sorts of other add ons for free, which we used to offer for full rate paying guests but just can not at that price.
 

begonia

Member
Oct 10, 2007
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I saw yesterday the film Avatar on the TV, and I am not sure why but it reminded me a lot of what we are doing in Bali or what we, human beings, are doing with the earth..Destroy the beautiful nature little by little just for the reasons of money.........