With a tourist economy shattered by six months of coronavirus shutdown, Bali has reopened its borders to a tragic increase in infections and deaths. To understand why this happened, Belinda Yohana and Sophie Raynor take us back to the 70s: to understand how Bali became so dependent on mass tourism in the first place. It’s the story of surf exploration, the hippy trail, cut-price flights, the Asian recession, and a hamstrung economy. But it’s also the story of a new opportunity for Bali to re-open with a resilient, sustainable, and diverse economy.