This article aims to break down the true costs involved with travelling, reveal all the hidden economical expenses that may arise and hopefully encourage you to visit East Java!
[Mia is a third year Law (Honours) and Commerce (Economics) student who is currently a writer in ESSA. She has a keen interest in understanding how people’s views and lived experiences influence economic policy and shape the economy.]
Last year, my friends and I travelled to East Java in Indonesia with a budget of $1.5K and 10 days ahead of us. Unbeknownst to us, this trip presented a series of unforeseen situations that revealed the often overlooked hidden costs of travelling. As someone who loves to travel, this article aims to break down the true costs involved, explore hidden economical expenses that arise and hopefully encourage you to visit East Java!
The table above outlines the full financial breakdown of our trip. Flights accounted for approximately one third of total expenditure followed by accommodation at around 25%, transport at 14%, activities at 7% and other expenses including food at 19%. This article will focus mainly on the three costs highlighted in red, all which illustrate the hidden costs of travelling.
Would you take a 24 hr bus ride? The art of opportunity cost.
While planning our journey, we faced a classic trade-off: a $32, 10-hour bus ride or a $200 flight. Like many travellers, we weighed the benefits of saving money against the cost of a discomfort ride and the loss of time; but being young, on a budget, we picked the bus ride.
Our journey began at a local bus hub in Bali, bound for the town of Probolinggo. The first few hours were almost idyllic as the scenery gradually shifted from bustling urban streets to expansive rice fields and eventually into winding mountain valleys. However, this calm was abruptly disrupted by an unexpected traffic jam. It turned out our boats, which were the only way to cross onto the island of Java, were undergoing maintenance, transforming our anticipated 10-hour trip into a gruelling 24-hour ordeal.
With each passing hour, the perceived savings of the bus fare diminished, and the rising opportunity cost of our time made us increasingly regret not choosing the 200 dollar flight. From an economic perspective, this experience reflects the concept of opportunity cost; the value of the next best alternative forgone (Fernando, 2025). In the context of travel, time is a finite and often undervalued resource. Travellers implicitly assign a monetary value to time, often referred to as the ‘value of travel time savings,’ highlighting that cheaper options may involve significant hidden costs.(Czajkowski et al., 2019) Increasing transport times displaces opportunities for rest, exploration or other meaningful experiences.
From a broader socioeconomic perspective, our journey represents a stark reality faced by millions of locals. One traveller we met in Probolingo was returning home to North Sumatra, embarking on a 48-hour journey. For him, the opportunity cost of flying far outweighed the time lost and discomfort. Indonesians on average in 2026 earnt an equivalent of around 1017 AUD a month (Yu, 2025). In contrast, our comparatively higher earning capacity meant that the opportunity cost of time was lower, affording us the luxury to fly.
Ultimately, this experience underscores the importance of opportunity cost in travel decision making. What initially appeared to be the cheaper option proved far more costly in terms of time, energy and comfort, illustrating that the true cost of travel extends well beyond the price paid.
Tour or no tour.
Another clear illustration of opportunity cost arises in the decision of whether to book a day tour to hike Mt Bromo. While tours offer convenience and efficiency, their higher price posed a significant barrier for budget-conscious travellers like us. Instead, we chose to forgo a nine-hour tour in favour of spending three days in the local town.
This decision required us to substitute monetary savings with time and effort like walking to the base of the mountain while others travelled by jeep. Yet, in doing so, we accessed experiences that are difficult to price: watching the morning fog roll gently through the town, locals riding their horses down the mountain, chatting over smoothies in the sun and riding through the sea of sand.
From an economic perspective, this reflects a shift from efficiency to experiential value (Chang, 2018). While we incurred higher non-monetary costs such as time, physical exertion and reduced convenience, we gained intangible benefits that structured tours often forgo. In this way, the hidden costs of travelling are not always losses; rather they represent trade-offs, where what is sacrificed in one dimension may be gained in another.
The non-existent hotel
Much like an economic model, travel is often shaped by external variables that lie beyond the control of us as decision makers. In our case, this took the form of a hotel booking that, quite literally, did not exist.
We arrived in Bali around midnight, exhausted and irritable, with our only expectation being a place to rest before our 7am bus departure the next morning. Our taxi driver dropped us at what was meant to be our “hotel”, which turned out to be nothing more than an empty plot of land on the side of the road.
From an economic perspective, our mistake reflects uncertainty and risk, showing how decision makers may still face the possibility of an unfavourable result despite having made a rational choice based on available information. Fortunately for us, we were able to find another hotel to stay the night.
The real hidden costs – hidden costs for the local economy.
Hidden costs do not only affect travellers; more importantly, they extend to local communities. After the first part of our trip, like many Australians, we spent the next few days in a villa in Bali.
Online, Bali is often portrayed as a traveller’s paradise, however the reality is considerably more complex. Although tourism undoubtedly contributes to the local economy, the benefits are not always distributed evenly, often marginalising local stakeholders (Junaedi & Utama, 2017).
In our short two days there, the impacts of overtourism were clearly visible, along with its hidden environmental and social costs. For locals, traffic congestion can add hours to daily commutes driven not only by the sheer volume of travellers but also by rapid and often poorly planned infrastructure expansion, which has left many roads inadequately connected. We also observed stark contrasts between luxury villas and nearby waste sites, highlighting the broader disparities in living standards across Bali. These conditions reflect wider systemic pressures associated with overtourism, including the overexploitation of water resources, inadequate waste management systems and the gradual erosion of traditional cultural practices all of which represent hidden costs of travelling (Mihalic, 2024).
Overtourism also contributes to rising living costs, the displacement of residents through tourism driven real estate conversion while also causing growing resentment within host communities (Pramono et al., 2026). While tourists regularly spend over AUD $10 at cafés, our local friend Widi took us to his everyday restaurant where a meal cost approximately AUD $1, showcasing the disparity in local and tourist pricing. We also heard firsthand from one of our taxi drivers, who usually work up to 16 hours a day simply to make ends meet about the pressures the tourism boom in Bali has placed on their everyday lives. Although our taxi drivers remain grateful for the employment opportunities tourism provides, there is no doubt that it has led to significant hidden costs for both themselves and the broader Balinese community.
The economic gains from tourism leading to rapid development often prioritises short-term gain over sustainable development. While this may reduce upfront costs for travellers, it generates hidden social costs affecting locals. In contrast, countries such as Bhutan impose a Sustainable Development Fee of around AUD 140 per day. (Bhutan, 2025) Although this raises the visible cost of travel, it internalises these hidden costs, helping to preserve local culture and maintain residents’ living conditions.
Conclusion
While there are many hidden costs associated with travel, travelling is also characterised by a series of trade-offs that allow individuals to customise their experiences according to their preferences and budget constraints. More importantly, it is essential to consider the broader social and environmental ‘hidden costs’ borne by local communities.
I had a truly otherworldly experience exploring East Java with my friends, and to me, the benefits I gained significantly outweighed all the costs I incurred. To wander through untouched landscapes, share moments with friends, walk across vast sand plains, climb volcanoes and watch the sun slowly illuminate entire towns is something I will never forget. If you ever have the opportunity to visit East Java, I would strongly encourage you to do so; it is truly an extraordinary place.
References
Ante Mandić, & Lidija Petrić. (2021). Mediterranean Protected Areas in the Era of Overtourism. Springer Nature.
Bhutan, V. (2025). Sustainable Development Fee | VisitBhutan.com. Www.visitbhutan.com. https://www.visitbhutan.com/page.php?id=68
Chang, S. (2018). Experience economy in hospitality and tourism: Gain and loss values for service and experience. Tourism Management, 64, 55–63.
Czajkowski, M., Giergiczny, M., Kronenberg, J., & Englin, J. (2019). The Individual Travel Cost Method with Consumer-Specific Values of Travel Time Savings. Environmental and Resource Economics, 74(3), 961–984. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-019-00355-6
Fernando, J. (2025, May 31). Opportunity Cost: Definition, Calculation Formula, and Examples. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp
Junaedi, I. W. R., & Utama, I. G. B. R. (2017). AGROTOURISM AS THE ECONOMICS TRANSFORMATION OF THE TOURISM VILLAGE IN BALI (CASE STUDY: BLIMBINGSARI VILLAGE, JEMBRANA, BALI). Journal of Business on Hospitality and Tourism, 2(1), 10. https://doi.org/10.22334/jbhost.v2i1.37
Mihalic, T. (2024). Trends in Sustainable Tourism Paradigm: Resilience and Adaptation. Sustainability, 16(17), 7838. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177838
Pramono, R., Juliana, J., Hulu, M., Djakasaputra, A., & Jie, F. (2026). Overtourism in Bali and Lombok: A Governance and Community Perspective on Challenges and Strategies for Sustainable Development. Societies, 16(2), 65. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc16020065
Yu, O. (2025, April). Average Salaries in Indonesia: 2025 Salary & Wage Guide – Empleyo. Empleyo. https://empleyo.net/average-salary-in-indonesia/
