Bali: Between Cultural and Marine Tourism1
I Nyoman Darma Putra
Masters Program in Tourism Studies
Postgraduate Program, Udayana University
Email: idarmaputra@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper discusses the potential of marine tourism in Bali
and its contribution toward the development of sustainable
tourism. While marine and cultural tourism form two
distinct categories, in Bali there are many cultural activities
that take place on beaches, or coastal areas that become
unique tourist attractions. Therefore, in this paper, I will
also introduce an expanded view of marine tourism that
would include, for instance, the observation of processions
and rituals on beaches. Exploring the interconnections
between marine and cultural tourism may help us come up
with new strategies for the sustainability of tourism in Bali
as a whole. In addition to aiming at sharing the experiences
of Bali in managing and promoting its marine tourism
potential, this paper also seeks feedback on better ways
to manage marine tourism in order to achieve tourism
sustainability for the island.
Key words: Bali, marine tourism, cultural tourism, tourist
attractions, sustainable tourism

Introduction
he Indonesian island of Bali has a rich art scene and a vibrant
cultural life. Both have been used as the foundation for the
development of cultural tourism (Vickers [1989] 2012; Picard

T

1 This paper was presented at the 18th Inter-Island Tourism Policy (ITOP)
Forum, held in Phuket, 20-22 August 2014. Thanks to Bali Governor Made
Mangku Pastika and the Head of Bali Tourism Authority Anak Agung Juniarta for inviting me to this forum.
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1996). The island attracts more than three million international
visitors every year. Last year, for example, the island was
visited by 3,2 million of international visitors, almost half of
the total number of foreigners visiting Indonesia in 2013, which
was 8,8 million. The way Bali uses its cultural assets as tourist
attractions not only helps to sustain the flow of visitors to
the island, but also plays an important role in nurturing the
vibrant life and creativity of the island’s culture, thus creating a
mutualistic relationship between culture and tourism (Pitana,
Diarta, Sarjana 2013). This dynamic relationship continues to
strengthen the image of Bali as a cultural tourism destination.
Despite being known for its cultural tourism, as a
small island that is surrounded by sea, Bali also has beautiful
stretches of beach and coastal environments that are ideal for
a variety of marine tourism activities. There are a number of
places in Bali that offer a wide range forms of recreation such
as surfing, snorkeling, parasailing, dolphin watching, and
sea walking. Like performing arts and other forms of cultural
attractions, all of these forms of marine-based leisure activities
also contribute to the variety of tourist attractions. But it seems
that in the attempt to create the image or brand of the island
as a tourist destination, such potential has been unequally
valued compared to the attention given specifically to arts and
culture.
In the mid 1970s, for example, during the flow of
visitors known as hippies, there was a growing concern for
the negative impact of tourism on local culture. In anticipating
the possibility of cultural degradation, profanisation, or overcomercialisation, the provincial government of Bali introduced
a regional regulation (Perda) as a guideline on tourism
development. The regulation, first issued in 1974, outlined that
tourism must be developed in order to strengthen local culture,
not only to utilise culture as a form of tourist attraction, but
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Bali, Between Cultural and Marine Tourism

more importantly to use the benefits from tourism to enrich
culture (Hitchcock and Putra 2007).
Until recently, the regulation has undergone two
revisions, in 1993 and 2012, which stressed the cultural focus
of the government in the development of Bali’s tourism. The
regulation reiterates the importance of maintaining a reciprocal
relationship between culture and tourism for the sake of the
people’s prosperity, cultural sustainability and environmental
preservation. There are various forms of tourism, such as
ecotourism, and marine tourism, but there has never been
specific regulation for these as in the case of cultural tourism.
However, the fact is that marine tourism in Bali is as important
as cultural tourism in keeping the island tourism industry
sustainable.
This paper discusses the potential of marine tourism in
Bali and its contribution toward the development of sustainable
tourism. While marine and cultural tourism form two distinct
categories, in Bali there are many cultural activities that take
place on beaches, or coastal areas that become unique tourist
attractions. Therefore, in this paper, I will also introduce
an expanded view of marine tourism that would include,
for instance, the observation of processions and rituals on
beaches. Exploring the interconnections between marine and
cultural tourism may help us come up with new strategies for
the sustainability of tourism in Bali as a whole. In addition
to aiming at sharing the experiences of Bali in managing and
promoting its marine tourism potential, this paper also seeks
feedback on better ways to manage marine tourism in order to
achieve tourism sustainability for the island.
Marine Tourism
Marine tourism has been defined widely. Orams (1999:9), for
example, points out that marine tourism includes:
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those recreational activities that involve travel away from
one’s place of residence and which have their host or focus
the marine environment (where the marine environments is
defined as those waters which are saline and tide affected).

Orams’ definition, which has been cited by many scholars,
includes a wide range of marine environment-based activities.
Jeong (2014: 299-300), by referring to Orams’ and other marine
studies sources, provides a number of activities that could be
included in the definition of marine tourism. He states that:
marine tourism participation included swimming in the ocean,
cruising, sea fishing, enjoying sea views, visiting an island,
staying at a marine resort, visiting a fishing port or, sea village,
marine sports and marina use, marine health activities (e.g., a
hot sand bath and mudpack), marine ecotourism, and enjoying
sunrises or sunsets in marine locales (Jeong 2014: 299-300).

It is clear from the definition above that marine tourism
includes a wide range of activities. If looked at from the point
of view of participants, it can be seen that marine tourists are
not only those actively involved in surfing, diving, sea walking,
and so forth, but also those statically watching sunrises, sunsets,
or surfing competitions.
In Bali, as in other coasts of the world, there are many
kinds of possible activities, not limited to beach-focused forms
of leisure, but also activities with cultural and social dimensions.
Before describing these further, below is the description of
marine tourism and its contribution to the development of Bali
tourism.
Marine Tourism in Bali
Bali was first introduced as a tourism destination in the 1920s
by the Dutch colonial government. This began by encouraging
the Royal Packet Navigation Company or KPM to start bringing
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Bali, Between Cultural and Marine Tourism

tourists to Bali. Initially, tourists were primarily Westerners who
lived in Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), but later on included
tourists from outside of Indonesia.
Following the growing popularity of Bali and the
increasing ease of access provided, more visitors came and
stayed longer; for instance, German-born artist Walter Spies
and Ditch painter Rudolf Bonnet. Among other legendary
tourists who came to Bali in the early days of the development
of tourism was Indian Nobel prize winner for literature,
Rabindranath Tagore and his companion, who came to Bali in
1927 (Dutta and Robinson 1995; Lanus 2013).
The trip to Bali on a ship no doubt can be seen as a form
of marine tourism. Passengers would also enjoy the scenery of
the ocean and beach from their ship when it was approaching
the island’s harbor. The ship anchored either in North or South
Bali harbor from where they toured the island. Since both the
ship journey and activities like viewing the scenery or sunset/
sunrise from KPM was also a kind of marine tourism, this
means that the development of Bali tourism was inseparable
from marine tourism since the very beginning.
The establishment of hotels in Kuta beach and in Sanur
beach by both expatriates and local inhabitants during the
late colonial period (1930s) and after independence (1945) not
only shows the central role played by marine environment
in tourism development but also the focus on using beaches
for recreational purposes. In Bali, before tourism was as well
developed as it is today, beaches were not popular places for
people to visit. People believe that beaches are sacred and
dangerous (angker), and they are considered symbolically or
physically as a back rather than a front yard. The beach is the
place to throw rubbish from ceremonial offerings, or scatter the
ashes of the dead, to ensure that their manifested body returns
to the outer world or to the holy river of Gangga in India, since
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Balinese Hindu hold the belief that sea water would meet the
water of Gangga River in the sea. Beaches or coasts were not
thought of as recreational places, but more as either angker
places or places to perform sacred rituals. Visiting the beach
in twilight (senjakala), the time of sunset, was also considered
dangerous, as it is the time when the power of day and night
collide. Change, however, took place when tourism activities
started to influence local people to see how beautiful the sunset
is.
In the 1970s, when tourism began to develop more
broadly, surfing sports introduced by the surfers of Australia
also started to develop. Bali got to host several international
surfing competitions. Balinese youths also appeared to be a
formidable surfers, competing at an international level.
Film producer Andrew Kidmann and director Albe Falzon
of Australia made a surfing movie called The Morning of the
World (1971), released in 1972. Lewis (1998) suggested that this
film was modelled on Bruce Brown’s film The Endless Summer:
The Search for the Perfect Wave (USA, 1964) and established a
prototype of surf movie in Australia. The film follows the
journey of a troupe of skilled surfers through high-quality surf
in some largely undistinguished territories of Australia, Hawaii,
and Bali (Lewis 2009:66). The film’s legendary nature not only
managed to convince the world that surfing is a lifestyle, but
also to promote Bali as a good surf spot for Australian tourists
and surfers from other countries.
Since tourists discovered the beautiful beaches around
Bali, and since beaches became one of the centres of tourist
leisure activities, many international-scale beach activities
have been held in Bali, for example the international skydiving
championship in 1988, ASEAN Beach Volley Ball, and a number
of international surfing contests in south Bali, especially in
the Kuta, Legian, and Uluwatu Beaches. While such beach20

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focused activities involved more foreigners than local people,
recently there are a number of coastal villages that have held
festivals which included various form of beach activities
and competitions, like the Sanur Village Festival (since 2005,
the IXth taking place in 2014), Kuta Carnival, Legian Beach
Festival, Lovina Festival (North Bali), Nusa Penida Festival (in
the Southeast). Unlike the various national and international
championships, these festivals were initiated and run by local
people and supported by government and tourism sectors.
Since these are held at coastal villages, the festivals include
a variety of marine-based activities such as canoe races, fishbased food festivals, and kite festivals. All of these festivals are
recent phenomena and since the initiative was taken by local
people or villagers, the festivals have contributed to a new spirit
of tourism, specifically focusing on marine-based activities and
leisure.
Dolphin Watching and Coral Rehabilitation in North Bali
The potential of marine tourism has been developed in a
number of areas throughout Bali. The kinds of marine activities
on offer vary from place to place. In North Bali, in Lovina beach,
there is a dolphin watching attraction which not only attracts
tourists to the area, but also provides economic benefits to the
local people (Mustika, Birtles, Welters, and Marsh 2012), hence
contributing to the sustainability of the destination.
In a study conducted in 2008-2009, Mustika et al mention
that the dolphin tour brings 37000 overnight visitors to hotels
in the Lovina area for the year, and contributes Rp 41 billion to
the local economy, including hotels, restaurants, transportation,
communication, and souvenir shops. There are 179 boats
mostly operated by former fishermen who have direct income
from this form of marine tourism. Tickets to watch the dolphins
range from Rp 50 thousand to Rp 85 thousand per person (US$
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5 - US$ 8,5), depending on the distance and quality of service.
Since dolphin watching can only be done in the morning,
tourists who stay in South Bali have to come and stay overnight
in Lovina. As long as this tourist attraction is sustained, the
economic impact will continue to benefit accommodation and
other tourism-related businesses in Lovina.
In order to maintain the dolphin watching attraction,
it is suggested that the number of boats that operate must
be controlled and even reduced. The higher number of boats
that operate in the area could threaten the appearance of the
dolphins and can compromise the satisfaction of tourists who
purchase this tour. If the dolphins do not show up, tourists
would be unhappy, and slowly this tour would vanish, which
could put the tourism business in the area at risk.
Pemuteran Village, North Bali, is another spot of marine
tourism worth noting for its best practices, economic impact,
and marine-environment preservation. Pemuteran is a coastal
area with a dry land which had contributed to the level of
poverty of the villagers. Fishermen in the area used to catch fish
using cyanide bombs which destroyed corals. This eventually
reduced tourist interest in diving or snorkeling in the area.
To avoid further damage to the beautiful marine park in
the Pemuteran beach, in 1992, the association of dive operators
(Gahawisri) and local accommodation businesses took an
initiative to invite villagers to rehabilitate the coral reef as an
incentive to invite tourist interest and the economic benefits
that follow. They founded the Karang Lestari Foundation
(YKL) to work together to save the coral in Pemuteran beach.
The interesting part of this effort was that it combined the
use of science and technology and the value of local wisdom
to ensure to rehabilitation of the coral reef. Technological
support was provided by two international experts, Professor
Hilbertz Wolf and Dr. Tom Goreau, while villagers enforced
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Photo 1. A purification melasti ritual on the beach becomes a tourist attraction.
(Source Internet).

local-wisdom-based regulations (awig-awig) to prevent people
from catching fish or destroying the coral as they did before.
Traditional police patrol, pecalang, has been assigned to patrol
the beach area. Should they find villagers or locals catching
fist or carrying equipment that would presumably be used to
destroy coral, the pecalang would give appropriate sanctions.
Through this combined effort and serious measures, the
damage to coral gardens was back under control.
Tourists slowly returned and business gradually
recovered. At the same time, villagers under the foundation
profit from working as boat drivers for tourists interested
in marine tourism. Thanks to marine tourism, the originally
generally poor Pemuteran village began to gradually reach
a level of prosperity (Pitana, Diarta, and Sarjana 2013). What
is equally important in the context of imagery used in the
promotion of tourism in Bali is that this strategy to rehabilitate
the reef garden in Pemuteran has gained international
recognition. The chairman of Karang Lestari Foundation, I
Gusti Agung Prana, received national and international awards,
such as the Kalpataru from the government of Indonesia
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Photo 2. Dolphin watching in Lovina Beach, North Bali (Source Internet).

(2004) as an environmental savior. The following year (2005),
Karang Lestari Foundation received the Gold Award For Best
Environmental Project, from the Pacific Asia Travel Association
(PATA) submitted in a conference in Macau.
The rehabilitation of coral in Pemuteran with the
implementation of a system of biorock has inspired similar
efforts in other parts of Indonesia, such as Lombok. Australian
businessmen who invest in the island invited experts who
were successful in the Pemuteran coral rehabilitation project
to implement their biorock system around Gili Terawangan, an
island facing severe coral reef damage and waste and sewage
problems (Dodds, Graci, Holmes 2010:210). In addition, hoteliers
and dive operators in Pemuteran village have incorporated
sustainability practices into their management and marketing
strategies, thus guaranteeing better economic outlooks for
local people, and thus matching the tourism-related economic
opportunities of the Lovina in the East and Pemuteran in the
West part of North Bali.
Water Recreation and Local Cruises
Benoa harbor and Tanjung Benoa village in South Bali are also
a centre of marine tourism. The harbor is the port of yachts
and cruise ships, while Tanjung Benoa (across the harbor to
the South) offers a range of marine tourism attractions. All the
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attractions they offer have not only become a source of income
for operators and local people, but more importantly, provide
tourists with a myriad of choices of marine leisure activities.
Tanjung Benoa is less than 3 km away and easily
accessed from Nusa Dua, home of dozens of luxurious hotels
with around 6000 rooms. The beach of the village has low
waves, which is ideal for various kinds of marine recreational
activities such as parasailing, banana boat riding, water
scooter, and kite skiing. There are 24 companies, operated by
and employing local people, most of them former fishermen,
as in Pemuteran and Lovina. They are grateful for the potential
of their area which makes it possible for them to gain access
to the economic benefits of tourism (Ayu Rai 2014). Marine
tourism operators give priority to measures that will preserve
the coastal environment in order to ensure the sustainability of
their economic resources.
A relatively new form of marine tourism activities is
seawalker, offered in Tanjung Benoa and Sanur, to the north. In
this form of recreation, tourists descend to the bottom of the sea,
approximately 3-4 meters below surface, to enjoy the beauty of
coral reefs and colorful fishes. No swimming skill is required.
Advances in technology allow participants to safely get down
to below sea level using helmet-oxygen equipment to breathe.
Travelers from Asia such as Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and
from Australia are fond of this form of recreation. Hotels around
Tanjung Benoa and Sanur also include a seawalker attraction
in their room rates, making their offerings more attractive to
visitors.
Local cruise tours are offered in Tanjung Benoa and
Benoa Harbour. There are three cruise ships operating in Benoa
and Tajung Benoa: the Bali Hai Cruise, Bounty Cruise, and
Quicksilver. These cruises offer a day trip to Nusa Lembongan
Island, about 90 minutes from Benoa. Upon arrival, tourists
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Photo 3. Kecak dance performance with the backdrop of cliff, temple, and
sunset. (Source Internet).

can enjoy the marine tourism leisure activities, ranging from
banana boat riding, diving, snorkeling, glass bottom boat,
tours to Lembongan fishermen village, and so on. Hundreds
of tourists enjoy this tour every day. Besides the day tour, a
dinner cruise is also on offer. All this adds to the unlimited
attraction of Bali.
The operation of cruises to Nusa Penida and Nusa
Lembongan also stimulates the development of accommodation
and restaurants in these two small islands. Job opportunities
have opened up for the locals, helping to slow down migration
to the main island of Bali.
Rituals on the Beach as a Form of Marine Tourism Attraction
Beaches in Bali not only provide a place for a variety of marine
tourism activities as outlined in the previous sections, but
also an essential place for Balinese to perform various forms
of Hindu rituals. Cremation ceremonies, for example, include
throwing the ashes in the beaches, and this could be done
more than once. Life cycle ceremonies for babies becoming
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Photo 4. Water ski as a form of marine tourism (Source Internet).

six months old also include a purification ceremony held on
the beach. Other types of small and medium-scale rituals are
frequently performed on beaches around Bali, all of which
make the marine environment a spot for tourists to observe a
variety of cultural attractions.
There is also an annual procession to the beach from
villages and vice versa as part of a purification ritual preceding
the celebration of the Hindu New Year, The Day of Silence.
During the procession, called melasti, temple regalia and
offerings are carried out to the beach, accompanied by traditional
gamelan music that makes such processions particularly
lively. This ritual is performed on beaches throughout Bali. In
hinterland regions, where access to beaches is impossible, such
rituals are held on lakes or riversides where water for symbolic
purification is available. The procession starts from the village
temple in late morning, and returns in late afternoon. Access
to beaches on the day is difficult, as roads are blocked by
long processions that involve thousands of people. The ritual
itself lasts around three hours on the beach. The unique ritual
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Photo 5. Cruice ship and canoeing on the sea near Nusa Lembongan Island
(Source Internet)

called ngurek (stabbing kris dagger in the chest) and dances are
performed  as part of the purification.
The famous Kuta Beach and its north adjacent Legian,
Seminyak, Petitenget, and Canggu, and Berawa all become
venues of melasti. Because it takes place during the day until late
afternoon, these beaches, popular for sunbathing, swimming,
and other forms of marine leisure, turn into a unique tourist
attraction. These activities perhaps can also be defined as a
form of marine tourism. But, unlike conventional sorts of
marine tourism that focus on marine environment as defined
by Orams, this form of marine tourism has a cultural attraction
as its main element.
The presence of tourists wearing swimsuits or bikinis
amongst the sacred Hindu rituals often provokes critical
commentary which negatively expresses how tourist beach
culture pollutes sacred rituals. For others, the ability and
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solemnity of Balinese Hindus to perform grandiose processions
and rituals on beaches usually occupied by tourists is evidence
of the fact that the development of tourism causes little influence
to the sustainability of Balinese culture. Rather than choose one
or the other, it is better to emphasise that such differences of
opinion are basically caused by different ways of viewing these
phenomena.
Conclusion
Bali has a great potential for marine tourism, ranging from
surfing, dolphin watching, cruises, water sports, and seawalking,
all of which have directly or indirectly contributed to the local
economy, marine environment preservation measures , and
most importantly to the myriad of options for marine-based
tourist activities.
Marine tourism has played as important a role as cultural
tourism in the sustainability of the island’s tourism. However,
even though, as this paper argued, forms of marine tourism
have transformed Balinese practices and attitudes towards
coastal areas to such an extent that tourism can be said to have
‘invented’ Balinese beaches, the potential of marine tourism
has never been significantly taken into account in constructing
the brand or image of Bali’s tourism, which remains focused
on culture.
An expanded view of marine tourism would include
the observation of processions and rituals on beaches, such as
melasti, as well as activities such as watching the sunset in the
beautiful sea temples of Tanah Lot or Uluwatu in South Bali.
These provide interesting examples of how both marine tourist
activities and cultural attractions can be combined to become a
strong element in promoting forms of tourism that are unique
to Bali.

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