Bali is crowned the top destination to AVOID – here’s why Aussies have been told not to visit the insanely popular holiday island
Bali has taken the top spot in a list of destinations to avoid amid claims its natural beauty has been eroded by tourism.
Fodors Magazines placed the idyllic Indonesian island on its 2025 ‘No List’, along with 15 other destinations including Barcelona, Venice Koh, Samui and Mount Everest.
The travel site’s annual list highlights tourist destinations that are ‘suffering from unsustainable popularity’.
The editors said the tropical enclave’s natural environment and tourism industry are intertwined and the sheer number of visitors threatens to deteriorate both.
“Rapid, uncontrolled development, fueled by overtourism, is degrading Bali’s natural habitats, eroding its environmental and cultural heritage and creating a ‘plastic apocalypse,’” Fodors noted.
‘Once pristine beaches such as Kuta and Seminyak are now buried under piles of rubbish, as local waste management systems struggle to keep up.’
The Central Bureau of Statistics of Bali Province has determined that around 3.5 million foreigners had already visited the island in the first seven months of 2024.
The magazine said strong tourist numbers after the pandemic had increased “pressure on the island.”
Bali’s natural tranquility is under threat from a host of opponents of international tourism, a magazine has warned
Local media suggested that the central south of the island suffered the most, with a high concentration of resorts, traffic, development and waste and water management problems plaguing the area.
Bali Tourism Board chairman Ida Bagus Agung Partha Adnyana said the problem was not the total number of visitors.
“The problem is not total tourism, but the concentration of tourism in certain areas, especially in southern Bali,” he told the Bali Sun.
‘This means that other areas in Bali that are actually rich in culture and natural beauty do not receive the same attention, either from tourists or from tourism managers.
“Bali does not deserve to be considered a destination to avoid by 2025, as the problem is more about the concentration of tourism in South Bali, rather than overtourism as a whole.”
Indonesia Hotels Association (PHRI) vice-chairman I Gusti Ngurah Rai Suryawijaya said Bali needs to reevaluate itself.
“This is a warning to Bali itself, which is that Bali needs to stand up because it is tired of preserving its natural culture and environment itself,” he said.
‘If you want to exist, that’s why I often say: ‘Bali tourism must exist as long as the Balinese can make it tradition and culture and keep it in the barometer, namely nature and environment.’
The magazine clarified that certain destinations did not deserve their spot because they were disappointing.
Instead, they were selected because they faced a host of existential risks that international tourism presented.
“These locations are popular for a reason: they are stunning, intriguing, and culturally important,” this list clarifies.
“However, some of these coveted tourist attractions are buckling under the weight of their own fame.”
Among the other destinations deemed to have been negatively affected by tourism are Agrigento in Sicily, the British Virgin Islands, Kerala in India, Kyoto and Tokyo in Japan, and Oaxaca in Mexico.
