The Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, firmly asked the Bali police to find a local tour guide who tried to extort Sri Lankan tourists at the Besakih temple. Uno also admitted that he was disappointed with the recent extortion incident at the Besakih temple.
The act of extortion by the tour guide at the Besakih temple was initially conveyed by the taxi driver who accompanied the Sri Lankan tourist. He said that when accompanying the Sri Lankan tourists, they complained about tour guide at Besakih Temple extorting money from them.
The taxi driver named Belex wrote in the column for the tour and travel group’s Facebook group in Bali: Today, there was another extortion by the local guide in Besakih. I escort guests from Sri Lanka to purchase entrance tickets, as usual. After they pay, a guide is appointed by the ticket clerk to take the guest around the temple area. After giving a tour around Besakih Temple, the guide asked for a tip of IDR 150K even though there was no clear standard and obligation for guests to tip the local guide.
Sandiaga Uno said that the tourism task force and the Bali police were investigating this case; the local guide suspected of extorting Sri Lankan tourists had also been detained for further investigation by the Bali task force.
Uno appealed to all tourism stakeholders to work together in monitoring Bali tourism so that there are no more incidents of fraud and extortion like this happening in Bali.
Uno said this was a challenge for the tourism sector, which had just recovered from the pandemic. At the same time, Uno reminded everyone that Bali currently needs all related parties’ help to revive tourism and maintain positive momentum after the pandemic.
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