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Labuan Bajo hopes to maintain positive arrivals trend despite travel bans
The "gateway to Komodo National Park" remains hopeful, despite some impact from the coronavirus outbreak and ensuing travel bans.
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White beaches line the coast of Padar Island, which lies between the islands of Komodo and Rinca to the west of Labuan Bajo in West Manggarai on Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara province. Padar Island is part of Komodo National Park, famed for its giant lizards. (Shutterstock/File)
T
he number of foreign tourists visiting Labuan Bajo on Flores Island has been increasing steadily since last year.
According to the October 2019 data from Komodo Airport, the town in East Nusa Tenggara saw a 16.17 percent year-on-year (yoy) increase in foreign tourist arrivals.
Shana Fatina Sukarsono, who heads the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority (BOPLBF), remains hopeful that the trend will continue this year, despite the travel restrictions as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak. She admits that the town had been experiencing the effect of the travel ban the Chinese government had imposed on all provinces, as well as the Indonesian government's ban on all flights to and from China on Wednesday.
"Hopefully, we can maintain this trend in welcoming foreign and domestic tourists, and will be able to balance the effect of the decreasing number of Chinese tourists," Shana told kompas.com on Friday. She added that Chinese tourists were among the increase in visitor arrivals to Labuan Bajo.
Read also: East Nusa Tenggara tourism unaffected by coronavirus outbreak: ASITA
According to the data, the number of tourists from China who entered Indonesia via Komodo Airport had increased 51.39 percent yoy in 2019.
Shana said that no coronavirus case had been detected in Labuan Bajo, but that the airport had installed a thermal scanner and a special medical team as a preventive measure.
Indonesia has no confirmed cases of the 2019-nCoV virus to date.
Bali has seen a drastic decline in Chinese tourist arrivals from 3,000-3,500 people per day to 460-1,200 people per day, reported kompas.com, with other destinations across Asia also reporting a similar declining trend. (gis/kes)
