In November, authorities plan to remove business owners' structures from the beach at Gili Trawangan, with 189 structures on the list.
Permanent buildings will not be allowed on the shore. Sun loungers, tables, chairs and umbrellas will stay, but their number will be limited.
Owners will be warned first, with up to 15 days set aside for this stage. They will be shown how the beach is supposed to look so they can rework everything themselves. Structures belonging to owners who fail to do so will be demolished by the authorities, who say they will bring heavy machinery to the island. No exact date for the clearance has been set yet.
November was chosen so as not to disrupt tourists: from early November to mid-December, hotels on the Gilis are usually less than half full. Beaches on Gili Meno and Gili Air are due to be cleared next year.
The authorities say the structures have taken over a shoreline that should be open to everyone. They want to enshrine the new rules in a local regulation, and the regency expects to earn revenue from the beach.
According to officials, the plan has support on the island. Residents want to know what will happen to the beach in the future, while business owners are asking for rules to be enforced everywhere, including on Lombok itself.
Structures were already removed from this beach in 2017–2018, but the shoreline was poorly monitored and they came back. Back in August, the Oceans 5 dive centre on neighbouring Gili Air wrote that without constant oversight it would all start again.
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