Historical context

The Rhino was the mascot of Visit Indonesia Year, 1992

Much of the international tourism of the 1920s and 1930s was by international visitors on oceanic cruises. The 1930s did see a modest but significant influx of mainly European tourists and longer term stayers to Bali. Many came for the blossoming arts scene in the Ubud area, which was as much a two-way exchange between the Balinese and outsiders as it was an internal phenomenon.
Tourism more or less disappeared during World War II, and in the early years of the Sukarno era. National pride and identity in the late 1950s and early 1960s was incorporated into the monumentalism of Sukarno in Jakarta — and this included the development of international standard hotels. The political and economic instability of the mid-1960s saw tourism decline radically again. Bali, and in particular the small village of Kuta, was however, in the 1960s, an important stopover on the overland hippy trail between Australia and Europe, and a "secret" untouched surf spot. In the early-to-mid 1970s, high standard hotels and tourist facilities began to appear in Jakarta and Bali, and from this period to the end of the Suharto era, governmental policies of the tourism industry included an array of regulations and developments to encourage increasing numbers of international tourists to both visit Indonesia and stay longer.