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Bali bets on wellness experiences and sustainable dining to spur tourism recovery
- Bali is aiming for a slice of the multi-billion dollar global market for wellness tourism as investors flock to develop related projects
- Ubud was recently recognised as ‘a global hub of sustainable gastronomy tourism’ with more restaurants in the town focusing on local produce
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Crouching between the clear mountain stream and the rice field in Bali’s Ubud, Kasida cupped a tiny jewel-like red onion just pulled from a grassy verge which serves as a pantry for his restaurant Locavore.
The onion is just one of the many local produce used at the restaurant that specialises in sustainable dining, as food and wellness emerge as a key driver of Bali’s tourism-dependent industry still recovering from the pandemic.
Renowned as the Isle of the Gods, Bali’s reputation as a tourist haven was cemented in the 1980s. It is a party island for young Australians – who flood Kuta during the Christmas season – an affordable beach location for families and increasingly in recent years, a yoga haven for wellness enthusiasts.
Yet Bali’s tourist numbers are still well below pre-pandemic levels, according to Indonesia’s Central Bureau of Statistics. The island’s foreign tourist arrivals fell about 16 per cent to 4.4 million between January and October this year from 5.2 million over the same period - pre-pandemic - in 2019.
Wellness and new experiences may well be the island’s springboard to a strong rebound.
At Locavore, located on the island’s health epicentre of Ubud, customers are fed food foraged from the island’s jungles, coastlines and mountains.
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