It was announced this week, the authorities are putting the breaks on international influencers. These influencer types have been promoting the island and themselves on social media over many years and there appears to be thousands of them all over the world pumping out content, but no more so than right here on this island.
Now that Dubai has become a less attractive destination and option you can only wonder how many more influencers are on the way here. I have seen the argument posted online that the influencers are good for Bali, promoting the island to people all around the world, and they do it for free, etc. I guess that is a good thing, good for business, especially hotels and such, but something is telling me it may have gone a little too far. Does the island need thousands more tourists arriving here every day, filling up the already choked roads, or the foreigners arriving here, setting up shop with their video cameras, podcasts, flashy video techniques, and subdivision plans of making quick bucks. To be honest, I think a lot of people are over it.
Me, personally, I would prefer social media disappears totally and we could go back to the time of print media and having just one magazine worth picking up on this island every week. I wonder what magazine that would be? Wouldn’t that be nice, but of course, going backwards is just a dream, and that’s not gonna happen (or is it?).
But, back to the point, do we really need more and more of everything when the island can’t seem to sustain the amount of tourists arriving here every day, new settlers arriving to live here full time, the amount of trash being produced, and the suffocating traffic, it’s reaching overload already. Maybe it is time to take a break and slow down. Anyway, it appears imigrasi is onto foreign people on tourist visas posting commercial style videos and stories on social media. Whether anything changes or comes from it, who really knows?
Photos Above: Last Friday night, first stop was Lomo Boutique Hotel, which was an awesome time with old and new friends. After, we went further down the Uluwatu Road to Tabu to check out the sensational Youngr perform live.
Last Friday night was another huge one in Uluwatu. We trundled down south to the hallowed dry land of the southern hill, first to a new resort grand opening, and then onto Tabu for a big show there that had the whole town talking about in the lead up.
Lomo Boutique Hotel is sited just near the old Bingin turn-off in the Uluwatu area. It’s a touch of luxury, featuring a number of stylish rooms and a large villa at the rear end, with a beautiful restaurant facing the street that offers two restaurants in one; a cafe during the day and classy restaurant at night. They put on a great opening, with loads of drinks, good food and dancing, just like a Bali grand opening of old. Being near the nightlife of that area, which includes Hatch and Corazon, it could be an ideal spot for a party weekend or so in the Uluwatu area, or just hanging out on those wonderful white sand beaches down that way.
Next stop was the amazing show from Youngr at Tabu. That guy has so much energy it is literally infectious and the crowd went wild with him. I’m not sure that is the case at every show he does, but man, he had Tabu totally rocking that Friday night. I think it was one of their biggest shows ever and the place was packed to the rafters. Great night and awesome visit for us down Uluwatu way.
If you are at a loose end on Monday, please come along and support an ailing DJ performer, AJ O’Grady, as Red Ruby holds a special charity event to help the man fight a bout of cancer. He has a young family and we are trying to raise the money to help with a very costly treatment. The DJs that night will be playing for free and RR will be donating a percentage of profits to the cause. If you want to help here is a link to help out yourself. Donate here.