History of Tourism

Ever since two member of van de Houtman’s crew jumped ship in 1597, Bali’s utterly unique, highly developed culture has been endlessly fascinating to Westerners, the paradigm of tropical beauty and excotic adventure.

The Dutch steamship line KPM began calling at the northern Bali port of Buleleng in the late 19^th century, though its cargos consisted mostly of pigs, copra, and coffee rather than tourist. Following quickly upon the puputan of 1906, Bali’s fisrt tourist was Dutch parliamentarian H. Van Kol, who reached Bali at his own expense and toured the island with a senior Dutch official. Upon his return to Holland, he wrote of his travels on Bali in a book called Out of Our Colonies. By 1914 KPM was producing brochures rhapsodizing about Bali as an enchanted garden of eden.