Bali business owners frustrated with frugal tourists who haggle over prices, linger too long on premises

Bali business owners are becoming increasingly annoyed over the frugal spending habits of some tourists, including some who linger at restaurants for hours or haggle excessively over prices.

The tourist hotspot, which attracts millions of international visitors annually, is considering ways to change this trend, such as a move toward quality tourism.

Sit on premise for hours, haggle over prices

An owner of a small restaurant in Kedonganan Fish Market told The Bali Sun that she had on more than one occasion kicked foreigners out for buying just one glass of iced tea and sitting on the premises for hours.

Other owners complained how tourists would over-haggle over fruit prices or bring outside food into restaurant premises.

In fact, there's a nickname for such frugal tourists in Indonesia: "Turis sandal jepit" or flip-flop tourists.

2024 statistics from the Central Statistics Agency showed the average expenditure of foreign tourists to Indonesia was around IDR 22.8 million (around S$$1,900).

Travellers from Singapore made 1.408 million visits to Bali last year.

The most visitors were from Malaysia with 2.278 million visits, followed by Australia with 1.67 million visits.

Government thinking of ways to control tourism

As the tourist population in Bali continues to surge, the government is thinking of ways to keep the unruly, misbehaving, and stingy ones out.

One such method is the implementation of a five-time increase in tourism tax.

The move would raise the existing IDR150,000 (around S$12) tourism tax to IDR750,000 (around S$61).

There have also been talks of redesigning Bali's tourism industry to prioritise quality over quantity.

Chairman of the Bali Marginal Tourism Actors Alliance, Wayan, Puspa Negara told The Bali Sun that a possible way to do this is by strengthening the quality of the destination and human resources through local government policy.

Both Negara and the previous Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economies, Sanidaga Uno, have also mentioned possibly mirroring Bhutan's controlled tourism model to prioritise the environment's sustainability and quality of visitors.

Yet most feel that mass tourism is too prevalent in Bali, and the shift would affect thousands of small businesses that rely on lower and middle-budget tourist demographics.

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