New Law Proposed for Bali Travel Companies

(2/15/2010)

Governor Made Mangku Pastika has presented a proposed set of provincial laws governing tourism enterprises to the provincial House of Representatives. The new rules and regulations are aimed at bringing more order to the state of tourism services where many tour agencies have failed to renew their licenses but continue to operate.

According to Governor Pastika quoted in Beritabali.com, the new regulations governing travel agents will seek to bring order to the number of agencies allowed to operate and the type of packages they can offer. The new law will also seek to bring to an end the practice "buying and selling heads" in which agencies dealing primarily with the mainland Chinese market auction off guests to unscrupulous operators who then earn a return on their purchase by forcing guest to travel to restaurants and shops paying very high levels of commission.

Pastika estimates that at the end of 2009 there were 635 travel agencies registered in Bali, many of which no longer operate and fail to make activity reports as required by law every six months. The new law will also seek to curb the use of illegal foreign workers by Bali travel companies.