Tourist Publication on West Bali

In 1932, Miss Manx, better known with her Balinese name – K’tut Tantri went to Bali through Gilimanuk. In her book entitled Revolt in Paradise, she wrote that she was welcomed by colorful butterflies, monkeys, deer, birds and other wild animals in the tropical forest; now this forest belongs to West Bali National Park – famous for its Bali Starling bird.
The late K’tut Tantri has joined to built the first hotel in Kuta tourist resort. In the same decade the late German artist, Walter Spies, who loved to guide his friends, wrote his experience on his journey to west Bali. On the other hand, Miguel Covarrubias in his book “The Island of Bali”, 1937 wrote nothing on west Bali. On Bali map, he wrote two words – Jembrana (Negara) and the illustration of a Balinese tiger.
Although Bali has been attracting more and more foreign tourists since Bali hosted mass tourism in the mid of 1970’s, Jembrana in west Bali was still lacking any promotion. The international guide book only mentioned a few places of interest, for instance: Perancak, Rambut Siwi and Gilimanuk.
For cultural events, the buffalo race was described into one sentence without a calendar of event. Nancy Carter, the writer of Bali Path Finder 1977, was very upset. In preparing her publication on Bali, she got difficulties in obtaining information on buffalo races. During her stay in Ubud, she read many books and asked tourist information staff, but she got nothing.
One day, she met a boy from Jembrana telling her the schedule for buffalo race. Early in the morning, she went by taxi to west Bali and when arriving in the town, the locals told her that the buffalo race was held two weeks earlier. In 1989, your contributor was narrator for the buffalo race for a video promotion by BBC London television. In fact, Jembrana looks like a “blank spot” in tourist publications.

Since 1990
The Jembrana Tourism Authority was founded in 1990 in an effort to promote tourism in the region. For promoting west Bali, the government published booklets, brochures and calendars of events every year with a limited edition in bilingual - Indonesian and English. The government also has a website for tourist promotion. In the home publication, the government promotes tourism through weekly newspapers and magazines. Hotels such as Wana villa at Palasari, Medewi Beach Cottages, Hapel Hotel at Rening Beach and Puri Dajuma Cottages at Pekutatan Beach, publish their hotel brochures in English.
Jembrana in west Bali which is famous for its annual buffalo race and Jegog performance, started to promote in the international guide book by Lonely Planet, Periplus and Moon Publication. Tony Wheeler, Bill Dalton, Kate Beddall, Michael Tenzer and Joseph Ficsher are travel writers who wrote on Jembrana.
Bali Travel News has been promoting Jembrana since 2000 regularly. For those wishing to explore Jembrana regency, there are few further readings: Back to Bali by Kriston Rasmanto (PT. Gramedia Jakarta – 2004); Visitors Guide to Bali (2006); Bird of Bali by Victor Mason and Frank Jarvis (Periplus 1989); Bali the Island of Gods (Periplus 1991).