The Bali Bombings: Tourism Crisis Management and Conflict Avoidance

The combination of the bombings, SARS, the Iraq War and bird flu has brought about an acute decline in tourism in Bali, but despite widespread unemployment and a collapse in living standards the island has not experienced widespread strife. Despite severe provocation from the alleged Bali bombers, all of whom are Muslim, Hindu Balinese did not seek retribution by persecuting the island’s minorities. Bali’s politicians and opinion leaders appreciated the potential volatility of the situation and called for restraint using all available media and Bali’s network of village councils and urban wards. Various cultural and religious strategies, such as inter-religious worship and village security capacity building, were adopted to help manage the crisis. Rumours of ‘ethnic cleansing’ and the forced repatriation of non-Balinese, especially Muslim Javanese, appear to be unfounded. The widespread adoption of measures designed to avoid conflict appears to have helped restore confidence in Bali’s tourism industry. Some Balinese responses to the bombings are probably culturally specific, but this example of crisis management may have wider applications within the context of tourism.