A popular beauty spot in Bali has been spoiled by litter covering the floor, an influencer has revealed.
The Pengempu Waterfall near Ubud is often showcased on social media and visited by those hoping for a photo opportunity, but it doesn’t necessarily live up to the hype.
Scottish content creator Dale Philip posted a TikTok of his experience at the site earlier this month, showing “Instagram versus reality”.
The video showed a forest floor covered in litter, spoiling the beautiful spot. It was captioned that he had seen the waterfall “looking amazing in many flashy, glamorous Instagram photos”.
He said: “I did not expect to see all this junk lying here. That is an absolute shame. I bet you don’t see that on anybody’s Instagram photos. And this … well that’s the bloody reality isn’t it?”
Philip said he had considered taking a swim in the falls but ultimately decided against the idea.
He said: “It’s just, it’s not gonna be clean especially with all this junk and everything. It’s probably not safe at all to be swimming in that water. I’m pretty sure it would make me sick.”
Professor of Sustainable Tourism at Griffith University Doctor Susanne Becken said the cause of the rubbish is likely a combination of poor waste management systems and bad tourist behaviour.
“In countries where you can’t drink tap water, people buy bottled drinks (and) these typically come in plastic,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
“Same with other items consumed by tourists — snacks, sunscreen, anything really. It all ends up in the waste stream, sometimes directly when tourists litter, sometimes more indirectly when the disposed waste still makes it into nature, and waterways, because local systems are just not up for it.”
While locals produce their own amount of waste, tourists are likely to produce much more due to their “consumptive habits”, Becken said.
Because tourism is a “business of dreams and stories”, Becken said often neither the visitor nor the destination would willingly share the reality of the tourist attraction.
