The Mass Tourism of Chinese Tourists To Bali: A Structural Violence

The Mass Tourism of Chinese Tourist To Bali: A Structural Violence

Diplomatic relations after the normalization of Indonesia with China in the 1990s, has made the intensity of the two become inevitable until now. The main reason for Indonesia to normalize bilateral relations with China is the economy. The evaluation process carried out more than two decades before it was decided to reopen the diplomatic relations between Indonesia and China. Domestic dynamics which have various views related to Indonesia's decision at that time to normalize its relationship with China, which was finally considered that the normalization decision was the most rational thing to choose for Indonesia, considering that Indonesia needs to expand its market for non-oil and gas products (Sukma, 1999 ).

The scoop of the bilateral relations between China Indonesia begin with the industrial trade sector, and also services. The latest relation that establish in the regional context, ASEAN Free Trade Area (ACFTA), using a bilateral swap agreement (BSA) system. The system was created to reduce the dependence of developing countries, especially in Asia on the US dollar exchange rate. So that Indonesia (as one of the ASEAN member countries) incorporated in the ACFTA can use the Rupiah exchange rate in trading transactions with China, and vice versa. This shows the intensity of relations between the two countries is getting stronger.

Indonesia-China trade cooperation is not only related to the commodity goods but also includes transactions in the service sector, which is includes tourism sector. In this case, Bali as an icon of Indonesia tourism, and also the most popular international destination, shows the number of significant tourist arrivals from China. From 2014 to 2019 the number of Chinese tourist visits to Bali has increased, except in 2018 not very significant due to the conditions of trade war with The United States (BPS, 2020). Despite the decline, in 2019 there will be more than one million Chinese tourist arrivals (BPS, 2020). Chinese tourists occupy the first position as the most tourists who come to Bali in 2018, replacing the position of Australia which has been in the first position (Ginaya et al, 2019). Ideally this condition will bring economic benefits for the Balinese people, who are the main stakeholder of the tourism actors. In contrary, the real condition is not equal with the number of Chinese tourists to Bali. The high number of Chinese tourists visiting Bali is not directly proportional to the acquisition of income for Bali, which has direct implications on the total revenue from the tourism sector for Indonesia. The most of Chinese tourists have the lowest purchasing power compare to the others origin of visitors, even the total opportunity lost since 2014 - 2017 reached 260 million US dollars (Bisnis.com, 2018).

The opportunity loss in the tourism sector, as a result from the raising bilateral relations between Indonesia and China. The flexibility of the Indonesia policy toward China, ranging from trade taxes until the removal of visa on arrival for Chinese tourist to enter Bali. It has been ironically condition discovered by the government of Bali that Chinese tourists have a preference to shop at the souvenir shop whose owners are their citizens (not descendants), by buying souvenir items which are made in China (NusaBali.com, 2018). This is compounded by a payment system that uses a Chinese-made application using a scanned barcode (NusaBali.com, 2018). It leads to labelling Chinese tourists as A Zero Dollar Tourist (Ginaya et al, 2019). This unpleasant reality for Bali tourism has provided an economic threat to the Bali tourism sector. The threat which will later become an institutionalized form of structural violence for all parties related to Bali tourism, in which there is a component of society as an essential element for the travel wheels in Bali. As we all know, although Bali is the biggest foreign exchange earner for Indonesia, which is obtained from the tourism sector, it makes Bali very dependent on the level of tourist visits, both domestic and foreign. So that it can be said that Bali is a province in Indonesia that adheres to mono-economy, which only relies on economic income from one main sector, in this case is tourism.

Being mono-economic makes Balinese cannot do anything, even the phenomenon zero dollar tourist brings more harm rather than benefit. This inevitability is the core of structural violence, when victims cannot fight the forms of threats that arise, as a result of a policy made by the elite (Galtung, 2007). The perpetrators that cause structural violence are not unitary, and also inluclude intangible elemnent.  For example the value of the beliefs of a community as a contributor to perpetuating the violence (Galtung, 2007). Regarding the value, there is a strong correlation that the Balinese belief that everyone who visit to Bali will bring much money, thus helping their economy. However, the form of violence as a result of the policy's resilience towards China, which has posed a threat to the sustainability of tourism in Bali, cannot be regarded as a thing that can be tolerated continuously.

Reference:

Galtung, Johan, Charles Webel. Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies. Oxon: Routledge, 2007

Ginaya, Gede, Made Ruki, Ni Made Wayan Astuti. Zero Dollar Tourist: Analisis Kritis Diskursus Segmen Pasar Wisatawan Tiongkok Dalam Pariwisata Bali. Bali: Jurnal Kajian Bali, Vol. 09, No. 01, http://ojs.unud.ac.id/index.php/kajianbali. Login: 30 Juni 2020

Sukma, Rizal. Indonesia and China The Politics of a Trouble Relationship. London: Routledge, 1999

https://bali.bps.go.id/statictable/2018/02/09/27/jumlah-wisatawan-mancanegara-yang-datang-langsung-ke-bali-menurut-kebangsaan-2014-2019.html. Login: 30 Juni 2020

https://bali.bisnis.com/read/20181022/538/851855/pengeluaran-wisman-china-ternyata-masih-kalah-dari-turis-asing-lainnya. Login: 30 Juni 2020