Tourism in Bali developed rapidly between the early 1970s and the late 1990s, with the number of foreign visitors increasing by between 12 and 15 percent every year in that period. In 1997, just over 1.3 million tourists---including over 270,000 Australian and over 240,000 Japanese---visited Bali.
Tourism had many positive effects on Bali, but also adversely affected its culture and pressurized its infrastructure and natural resources. These negative effects were recognized by the Indonesian authorities who imposed a ban on building hotels on Bali in 1991.
Bali is considered a pleasant and safe tourist destination and is, in fact, the only destination in Indonesia that is still recommended by governments of the United States, Australia, Japan and European countries.
