The Hospitality Investor newswire has been taking a look at Bali’s aspirations to become a luxury destination and finds that those hopes won’t be realised anytime soon.
Bali has been loading up tourists taxes - with the threat of more to come - in a bid to attract those with fatter wallets and discouraging those looking for cheap flop-and-drop holidays.
Hostility Investor quotes figures released by the Bali Hotels Association which show that the main growth in new hotels on the island, which numbered 124 in March 2025, has been in the mid-market range.
The number of hotels charging between US$141 and US$200 per night grew from 11 in March 2022 to 20 in March 2025, an increase of 81.8%, while those charging US$81 to US$140 grew by 70.6% to 29 in the same period.
This far outstripped the 27.3% boost seen in the number of luxury properties charging US$501 or more, bringing the total to 14, while the nine new hotels with a nightly room rate between US$201 and US$500 represented an increase of 64.3% to 20 hotels, Hospitality Investor noted.
Quoted by Hospitality Investor, Sam Collins, Far East product manager at Best at Travel and Far East spokesperson for PATA UK & Ireland, said, “They have built hotels for Australians and Chinese travellers and Bali cannot suddenly afford to lose these markets.”