POLITICAL
It is difficult to trace when was the first visitors to Bali but the first statistics published by the Tourist Bureau showed 213 visitors to Bali in 1924. However, tourism in Bali grew at a rapid rate annually and now in 2010, it sees almost 2 million foreign visitor arrivals annually. In Bali, mass tourism begun in 1969 and 3 years later, plans have been set to ensure that tourism does not infringe on the cultural and environment aspects of Bali.
A Master Plan was drawn up for the tourism in Bali in 1985. It was made on estimated figures such as an approximate 734,000 tourists would arrive in Bali and they would spend an average of four days in luxurious hotels. Seeing this as a demand in their island, consultants proposed to build 9,500 rooms in Bali. This Master Plan also aimed at containing tourism in areas that did not infringe on the local population and precious cultural environment of Bali.
Nusa Dua was proposed to be developed to accommodate to the growing tourism demand and it was to be completed by 1976.
However, the consultants have undermined tourism and the Master Plan failed drastically as other areas such as Ubud and Kuta begun to see more tourists, leading to tourism development in these areas. One of the major flaws of the Master Plan was that it is led by a group of consultants who have little or no knowledge about Bali at all. Also, it was the demand that determined what shoud be supplied in Bali instead of the other way round. Consultants also compromised of wealthy westerners who have different mentalities from the Balinese people. Thus, when the main target market of the Master Plan is to attract high-end luxury market from Europe, Australia and Japan, it ended up seeing low-end individual spending tourists. The Master Plan also saw problems as cultural areas begun to see tourists influx and areas which are specially catered to tourism are not very well-received. Tourists begin to explore Bali on their own especially in the context of cultural tourism, where many of their precious and sensitive heritage lies.
This has then led to the development of another Master Plan produced in 1989. The objective of this Master Plan is different from the first as this allows tourism to develop in all areas of Bali with the introduction of rules and regulations being set. This also allows for the economic development of all parts of the island instead of just the touristy locations such as Nusa Dua and Kuta.
However this plan has failed as evidences of projects (construction and building of tourism facilities) fail to comply with the rules and regulations set by the Master Plan. For example, projects are still being built on sensitive areas such as clifftops and near beach fronts and on river valleys. 
For example, the newly built gold course in Tanah Lot is a mere 500m away from the sacred temple of Tanah Lot Temple. Also, monitoring of the project of whether it complies with the rules and regulations are all ineffective due to a lack of manpower, lack of decision making and also, the corrupted government in Indonesia. Many projects have received special dispensations from the corrupted government through monetary means and thus are able to do 'harm' to the environment.
ECONOMY
According to a report written by Kurt Krapf titled 'Tourism as a Factor of Economic Development', it states that the more wealthy and developed a country is, the more tendency it is for its citizens to travel overseas, especially to less prosperous countries. It thus brings about the redressing of the deficit in the latter country in its economy. Thus, it might be evident that tourism is a way to alleviate economy imbalance in terms of trade suffered by third world countries. Thus in what way has tourism led to a change in the economy of Bali?
Before tourism was introduced in Bali, agriculture was the main GDP and income of almost all Balinese. After tourism was introduced, it accounts for almost 80 per cent of the island's GDP, showing that it is a potential market to develop in Bali and brings about a lot more revenue than agriculture. As the number of tourists visiting Bali is increasing annually, it also means that tourism receipts in Bali are generally increasing. With more revenue pumped into Bali's economy, the standard of living in Bali has drastically increased. Tourism has lead to the creation of jobs in Bali either directly or indirectly. Wages are also twice that of agriculture and thus, farmers are switching between agricultural farming and tourism related jobs.
However, tourism does brings about negative economic impacts as well. Due to the fact that many Javanese companies invested and set up business in Bali when tourism was booming, there are money leakages as money is being transferred out of Bali to Java. Also, there is a serious consequence of inflation in Bali. Price of land, basic essentials and cost of living has sky rocketed over the past few years. Also, there is a case of Balinese selling off their ancestral lands because of the high price it is able to fetch. They sell their land and earn a short term profit which is not able to last forever whereas if they use their lands for agriculture, it can feed them for generations after generations.
SOCIO-CULTURAL
Due to the culture and festivals generating in tourism revenue, Balinese thus 'revitalise' their culture yet under this cultural renaissance lies the drastic change in touristification and commodification of its culture.For the case of Bali, they have no other options other than their culture and environment to attract and sell to the tourists. Thus, the economic development and environmental development can only arise out of cultural tourism. The Balinese people recognise this fact and thus work hard to create together a 'front' tourism. Meaning, a purposely created stage where many different cultures and festivals are showcased that are meant to be authentic but are actually commodified to meet the expectations of tourists.
It is ironic that right from the start, Bali was being promoted as an authentic cultural destination yet the cultures and traditions are now being compromised. Many Balinese habits have been kept out of tourists' views as well in order to maintain Bali's good reputation. Practices such as bathing in irrigation ditches alongside the roads in full view of people have been stopped. Women are asked to stop walking around bare-breasted and rituals such as cutting up of corpses during funeral rites have also been stopped. Because of the intensity of it and the fact that such 'disgusting' manners might leave a bad impression on tourists, such funerary rites have since then been stopped.
One of the more important cultural aspects of Bali is the traditional dances that is proclaimed as 'cannot be missed in Bali'.
Famous dances such as the Legong Dance, Barong Dance have also been commodified to certain extends, leading me to talk about touristification of culture in Bali. For example, the Legong dance has been commodified to incorporate more difficult dance steps to 'wow' the tourists and the time span of the dance has also been cut short to cater to the short attention span of foreign tourists. With such commodification being taken place, it leads to a rise in Reconstructed Ethnicity in Bali. Since the 1930's, such sacred dances are not meant to be displayed to outsiders in their ritual context. However with paying visitors wanting to see their dances, they have then showcased it to the world. Originally, these dances were meant to sustain and reinforce religious tiues for the Balinese but due to the fact that tourists have different taste and expectations, many different versions of such dances have been recreated and have become open to many changes and interpretations. Thus, authenticity has been conformed, packaged, photographed and sold to the tourists.
ENVIRONMENTAL
From my point of view, tourism has brought about little positive impacts to the Island of the Gods.
1) Water degradation, Beach erosion, Coastal reefs damaged
Because of the construction at many river mouths and hotels/resorts not caring about proper waste disposal capacity, the environment has become a victim of tourism. There are many cases of commercial developments not adhering to the regulations set by the Master Plan to protect and conserve the historical and sacred sites of Bali. One of the districts in Bali - Candi Dasa, which attracts travelers wnot wanting to bask in the touristy places in Kuta and Sanur, already shows the strains on the environment due to unplanned tourism. The coral reef around the shoreline has been damaged by the villagers who use it for building new guest houses. As the reef slowly disappeared, beach erosion began. In Kuta, there have been obvious signs of beach erosion and pollution. Despite measures taken to build concrete walls along the coastal areas of Kuta, it was a futile effort as the damage was irreversible.
2) Inland agricultural areas replaced
In the past, Bali used to have numerous areas of rice paddies for agricultural purposes. However, more and more land has been sold or replaced with tourist facilities such as guest houses and hotels. Also, many projects are not showing signs of care for the environment because of its violations to the Bali Master Plan. Projects are built within 2km of sacred temples and thus destroys the serenity and sacredness of the area.
3) Disturbances to wildlife
One famous tourism in Bali is Ecotourism. Tourists are able to go to the Money Forest and feed the monkeys with peanuts and bananas.
This results in a change in animal behaviour and them being dependent on humans for food. As men pose themselves as guides, they guide tourists to the monkeys and teach them how to feed them and not to frighten them away. In such close proximity, tourists might take out their camera and take pictures of the wild monkeys. After photo-taking, feeding and much enthusiasm, these monkeys are often hit and shoo-ed away back to the wild after completing their job.
