The Badung Regency Government in Bali will create regulations to optimise the potential for regional income from the tourism accommodation sector by targeting boarding houses (rumah kos) occupied by foreign tourists.
The Vice-Regent of Badung, Bagus Alit Sucipta, explained that controlling the management of boarding houses in Badung is considered important to implement. One of the triggers is complaints from accommodation entrepreneurs in Badung regarding the decline in their hotel occupancy rates. This is considered contradictory, as the number of tourists visiting Badung remains high.
“On the instructions and coordination with the Regent, we followed up with this coordination meeting. The point is how Badung can dig deeper into the potential of Regional Original Income which has not been explored so far, by making regulations. This is because the current needs in Badung are very different from before,” explained Sucipta after the coordination meeting for the supervision and control of boarding house construction in Badung on Thursday, the 10th of April.
With more foreign tourists staying in boarding houses, Sucipta emphasized the need to address this issue. Current regulations stipulate that boarding houses may only accommodate Indonesian ID card holders, as they are not intended for foreign tourist lodging.
“In the coordination meeting earlier with the Regional Secretary and the Head of the Regional Device Organisation related to regional income, we agreed to form an Integrated Team for Optimising Regional Tax Revenue. The members are from the related Regional Device Organisation to then jointly conduct field checks on what constitutes a boarding house, villa, or hotel,” Sucipta added.
Previously, the Regent of Badung, I Wayan Adi Arnawa, had suspected a shift in the trend of tourist accommodation—from staying in hotels to makeshift places in Bali. This is considered detrimental to the region, as it does not contribute to regional income and also impacts hotel occupancy rates.
“Tourist visits have increased but hotel occupancy is not as expected. What does that mean? So, one of our suspicions is that many of our guests are staying in places that are not hotels,” Arnawa previously remarked.