A Quite Long History of Bali Hotel Architecture Part IV: Massive Scale!

After coming to power in the aftermath of a 1966 military coup, Indonesian President Suharto’s New Order government officially proclaimed tourism to be a key tool of nation-building. This decree led in turn to a 1971 World Bank-funded masterplan for the development of Bali as an international tourist destination. A Plan put intro practice after the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) conference in Jakarta, February 1974.

The PATA’s 1974 conference in Jakarta was very important for Indonesia, an opportunity to introduce Indonesian culture abroad and a matter of great prestige for the new nation under Suharto’s new government. It was at this conference that the Indonesian government and the World Bank announced the Bali Tourism Project (or “Nusa Dua” project), a resort complex at the vanguard of modern tourism to be built on Bali’s southern Bukit peninsula, an arid and impoverished area by then.

The Indonesian government had previously collaborated with the private sector to create an integrated enclave of high-end tourism, with a masteplan for the whole island — designed by the French consulting firm Société Centrale pour L’equipement Touristique d’Outre-mer (SCETO) — that would limit tourism development to certain areas with the hope of protecting the culture of the Balinese people — at least that was the plan.

Much needed infrastructure — water, roads, waste management, electricity, communications — would be installed by the government…