Years ago many Danish students were lured to Praque which suddenly decided to market themselves as the underage party capital of Europe. Most thought - yes, they were part of the countries which lost the cold war and decided to become members of the European Union so they could milk the other members states making the Danish membership of the European Union a bad business case.
Problem was that it was not the city which marketed themselves as the party capital. It was a number of travel agencies, a number of hotels and a number of bars in Praque, which decided to go for the easy money.
Some 15,000 Danish youth went to Praque and it resulted in chaos for the local citizens who were not ajusted to who we Danish throw a party. We of course know that any new years eve party in the central parts of Copenhagen result in dumpster being burned, McDonalds put of fire (I do not know the cause for this) and fights and vandalism. We are used to that. Parts of Copenhagen like Noerrebro has been like that for many years. And it not only restricted to Copenhagen, ask citizens in Slagelse about the north of the city and citizens of Odense about Vollsmose. I could go on like this.
A campaign was launced to warn youth about the scam from the travel industry and possible show trials like in the communist days down there and the youth remained home after some years.
Peace was restored. The Danish authories went after Danish travel agencies who had posted photos of happy youth because a place like Praque where underaged teenagers cannot drink, can not produce happy teenagers. The travel agencies were fined heavily in Danish courts.
Now we have to look at how Bali is marketed
A present case is about a Danish woman, who made the foolish choice to ride a motorbike dressed in a skirt. As most women know skirts might provide the possible for men to look at what is under. Also as men in Scotland about this.
A local guy who wanted to become offended took a video and reported this video to the authorities. The woman was arrested and she is now risking 10 years in prison.
While the foreign department is helping the woman who was tricked into visiting a country which is not how it is sold in Denmark where it is marketed as an eastern version of Ibiza or the Sunny Beach, it is important to go after the travel agencies. They must stop their marketing of Bali and the rest of the area. It is clear that they as a country is not ready to pay the cost of mass tourism. If they want to keep themselves without turists it is OK and accepted. In Denmark there are also organizations like Post Pandemic Flag Carriers who wants to reduce tourism. In Copenhagen some policians want tourists to go home at 10:00, forcing restaurants and bars to close at that time unless they are within a special tourist area.
Tourism is a problem for many countries and Bali certain has the legislation to make tourists wish they never considered that part of the world for holidays.
So let us first help this poor Danish woman who was victim of a scam to get out of Bali before she is forced to commit to another kind of God just like a Australian fashion model was forced to in order to avoid rape. Next we need to go after the travel agencies so they stop selling trips to that part of the world, so the local population can continue to live in peace.
Sources:
- Tourist arrested after exposing herself on a motorcycle in viral video (The New York Post)
- Selskab får bøde for at lokke unge til Prag med druk (Danmarks Radio - In Danish language - about travel agencies getting fined for illegal marketing.)
- Burqa staved off rape: Michelle Leslie (The Age)
- Flertal vil lukke for udeservering klokken 22 i store dele af København (Danmarks Radio - In Danish language, about new legislation target to fend tourism out of Copenhagen, so the citizens can have a quiet life)