Bali is dead" why tourists are fleeing the paradise island en masse

Bali, for many years a symbol of tropical paradise, is experiencing a deep crisis. Popular travel bloggers are increasingly publishing devastating videos with the slogan “Bali is dead!”, and sophisticated tourists and old-timers of the island began to massively master neighboring destinations.

The epicenter of the disaster – Changu

The once sleepy fishing village has become the world capital of digital nomads. The flow of tourists over the past decade has soared by 173%, exceeding seven million people a year. The iconic settings of the sunsets have become "nightmare scenes" with crowds, and narrow village roads are paralyzed by hours-long traffic jams.

Journalist Anna Moloney from City AM, who visited Changu, confirms that reality is radically different from glossy pictures in social networks. “The island is so popular that its former lovers scream in panic, “Bali is dead!” and rush to Borneo,” she said.

The journey from the airport to Changu, which is just 12 miles away, stretches from 45 minutes to two hours due to traffic jams. Lucien Anhar, whose family opened the first hotel in Changu in 1997, admits the audience has completely changed. Instead of surfers-hippies came people interested in expensive restaurants, coworking and padel tennis.

Hidden traps for Russians

Southeast Asia expert Sergey Novikov highlights the problems that guidebooks keep silent about:

“Bali irretrievably loses the spirit of exoticism, becoming a commercial conveyor. If you are not ready to put up with the noise of punchers and two-hour traffic jams, the advice to flee to Vietnam or Lombok looks like a reasonable solution.