After spending the last two years traveling, working and volunteering in various parts of Southeast Asia, Caitlin found herself fascinated by the explosion in tourism, the spread of Western influence and the impact tourism is having on the local community.

In part II of this blog piece, she will discuss her observations while carrying out fieldwork in Lombok to provide insights on the management and implementation of the Mandalika Project.

Read on to see how local communities are being affected and what prospects lie ahead for the island as it faces rapid development.

Look out Bali, Lombok, the popular tourist destination’s neighboring island, is slated to become Asia’s new tourism hotspot. The new Indonesian-Government mandated “Mandalika Project” will aim at building tourism infrastructure and bringing development to the island, but at what cost? This two-part blog series will look into how tourism has already changed the face of Indonesia as well as what can be expected in terms of future changes to the economic and community aspects of Lombok.