Tourism is Bali’s biggest source of hard currency. The foreign currency brought in by tourists improves Indonesia’s balance of payments, helping to correct the structural imbalance of trade between the developing and developed nations.

The government recognizes that tourism is Bali’s best hope for raising living standards and bringing jobs and prosperity. Tourism has meant that many people are now able to send their children to school. A senior high school diploma (SMA) is required to enter a tourism school, and all the big hotels only want students from these schools. Work in a hotel in almost any capacity is considered an excellent job. Tour guides and drivers can do even better. They can make between US$400 and $500 per month, compared with a monthly salary of US$100-150 for Balinese high school teachers.

Many Balinese view tourism as a cure for overcrowding and poverty. Tourism provides extra income for the landless as well as for those put out of work by the “green revolution,” the introduction of machines, and shrinking land holdings. Even backpackers leave money. Their priority is to travel cheaply, but the very length of their stay-often up to the two-month limit-means they usually drop more cash than the wealthy tourists who spend but four days on the island.

It’s now common for whole families to work in tourism-father and son as drivers, the mother a waitress, little brother a roomboy in a hotel, the daughter a masseuse. Tourism has created a whole new middle class of hoteliers, art shop and gallery owners, and tourist agents. No one can expect the Balinese to live stuck in the middle ages. The worldliness that the heavy influx of foreign visitors has brought is undeniable. It’s common to hear bell captains greet hotel guests in five different languages. Tourist brochures are routinely written in at least three languages, including Japanese.

Bali’s true folk art is no longer living on borrowed time. Communities are willing to subsidize the high costs of sumptuous ceremonies and music and dance troupes, conscious that these expenditures secure the arrival of future generations of tourists.

Indeed, some dances and art forms once fading away have been revived by tourist demand. The island’s musical ensembles and dance troupes are as active now as at any time in Bali’s history.

It’s all too easy at this great distance to worry about the commercialism of Bali and forget the native resistance, which absorbs us all. The Balinese win, and our eyes are opened Sometimes I feel guilty recommending friends to Bali, knowing I contribute to the acculturation process. As my wife says, Bali is not for everybody. Those travelers who come away disenchanted were rejected by Bali. I also know destruction is inevitable. Perhaps as Bali is diluted it will be diluted worldwide. The spirit of Bali will spread to this island earth. And the loss of a small island will be the gain of an entire planet. - BERT CREWS