'The Bali Syndrome': The explosion and implosion of 'exotic' tourist spaces

The 'Bali Syndrome' is an attempt to codify the re-territorialization of 'mature exotic' tourist spaces, focusing upon the progressively more pronounced tendency towards extreme forms of spatial segregation evident within such destinations. Adopting the case of Bali as an illustrative example, the paper examines select aspects of the spatial (re)organization of tourist landscapes in the developing world and, in particular, the increasing emergence of functional and sometimes even physical divides between the last generation of 'gilded enclaves' and the surrounding territory. The article goes on to note that the 'explosion' of tourist spaces, with their progressive 'colonization' and transformation of new portions of the local territory, is also accompanied by a parallel 'implosion' of spatialities within the segregated tourist micro-universes; an 'implosion' which attempts to capture and reconstruct a 'timeless' and de-territorialized 'essence' of place.