The Important Reason Why People Are Being Advised Not To Visit Bali Next Year

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If you’re like us, you’re probably plotting a holiday abroad next year, spurred on by the gloomy evenings and rotten weather.

Places like Bali are bucket list trips for many, but people are being advised to reconsider visiting them in 2020 due to problems with overtourism.

Travel guide Fodor’s annual ‘No List’ names the Indonesian island as a place to avoid next year, along with four other destinations.

Why should you take Bali off your list? Well, the island has experienced a huge surge in tourism over the last few years (just think of all the Instagrams you’ve seen from there), and the environment needs a chance to recover.

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The amount of plastic found on beaches and in the waters lead to the declaration of a ‘garbage emergency’ in 2017, after which single-use plastics were banned completely.

As well as environmental concerns, the Fodor’s report also notes that the government wants to set up guidelines for tourists “who are visiting religious sites in bathing suits, climbing over sacred sites, and generally disrespecting customs and cultural norms”.

Other destinations on the No List include:

• Barcelona, which just does not have room for the numbers of tourists coming every year – similarly to Dublin, short-term rentals have lead to skyrocketing rents for locals;
• Big Sur in California, which has become overwhelmed by people seeking a Big Little Lies experience;
• The Cambodian temple complex of Angkor Wat, which is literally being worn down from tourists traversing it in their thousands;
• And Hanoi’s Train Street, where people are endangering their lives for photos of a live railway track running through a narrow street.

Obviously, people will continue to travel to these places – but if you do, do it responsibly, and keep your impact on the beautiful places you’ve come to visit as minimal as possible.

• bali
• tourism
• travel