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Govt delays Komodo park price hike to January 2023
Following public uproar and local tourism stakeholders commencing a month-long strike last Monday, the government has rescinded the new admission price for Komodo National Park and postponed it until the new year.
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T
he government has decided to postpone applying the new admission price for Komodo National Park in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), until Jan. 1, 2023 following an outcry from local residents as well as tourism businesses and activists.
The NTT administration has said that it would improve tourism facilities and infrastructure, as well as communicating the new policy in the interval.
The decision was made “following suggestions from various parties and on the direction of President Joko Widodo”, NTT Tourism Office head Zeth Sony Libing said as quoted by Antara on Monday. “The NTT administration is open to suggestions, including from religious and community leaders,” he added.
On Aug. 1, the government increased the admission price for the islands of Komodo and Padar in Komodo National Park to a whopping Rp 3.75 million (US$251) per person from Rp 200,000 previously.
The move aimed to limit the number of visitors to protect the natural habitat of the Komodo dragon and was based on a study by the Komodo National Park Agency, which recommended ideal visitor numbers of 219,000 per year for Komodo Island and 39,420 per year for Padar Island, southeast of Komodo Island.
Local residents and tourism businesses have opposed the drastic price hike, arguing that it would reduce visitor numbers to the park and thus reduce their income. Meanwhile, they said that designating Rinca Island, located to the east of Padar Island, as a mass tourism destination would place additional pressure on and undermine local conservation efforts.
Tourism service providers in Komodo National Park began a month-long strike last Monday involving at least 700 workers to protest the new policy. Among the rally locations was Komodo International Airport in Labuan Bajo, where police detained at least three protesters.
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) criticized the local police for using repressive measures against protesters.
While welcoming the plan’s postponement, Sergius Tri Deddy, council chair at the West Manggarai branch of the Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI), said the local community was still opposed to raising the park’s admission price.
Sergius told Tempo that the price hike remained a contentious issue among residents, who said that many tourists had canceled their trip after the new price became effective.
The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) criticize the price hike as another attempt to deprive local residents of their livelihood in favor of privatization and monopolizing tourism management for the national park.
The NTT administration had earlier appointed province-owned company PT Flobamor to manage the park’s tourism.
The KPA said that the government citing conservation as the reason for increasing the admission price was unfounded, as Komodo residents had been living on the island for centuries alongside the endemic giant lizard species without the government’s help.
By increasing the ticket price “instead of settling agrarian conflicts, the government will introduce structural poverty to the people of Labuan Bajo, who depend on the tourism industry”, KPA policy advocacy head Roni Septian told The Jakarta Post last week.
Komodo dragons are found only in the national park and on neighboring Flores Island. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), just 3,458 adult and baby Komodo dragons are left in the wild.
