Host community visioning: the case of Bali

Academic examinations of visioning, the active imagination of possible futures, have been largely overlooked in tourism studies. While a significant tradition of research on visioning exists outside tourism, particularly within urban planning, there is a lack of knowledge on host community visioning processes in island tourism destinations and potential positive outcomes of such processes. This paper explores possible futures envisioned by residents of the Indonesian island of Bali, as well as the transformative potential of such processes. Writing templates were embraced as an appropriate mode of qualitative inquiry, through which 202 Balinese residents assessed the current state of their island and envisioned possible futures for it. Through a detailed thematic analysis of templates, visions of better transportation, education and health systems emerged. It is argued that such visions should inform efforts to address sustainability challenges when fed back to the community through wider political dialogue. Results of the study have therefore informed the development of Bali's practical tourism strategy framework, especially Bali's 2050 roadmap for sustainable tourism development. Although the current state of tourism was perceived in a more positive than negative way, respondents nonetheless imagined change for future tourism on the island. Due to soaring visitor numbers, the long-term sustainability of Bali as an important island destination depends on changes which the visions presented here may help effect.