Tourism Association Refuses Without Compromising Exorbitant Tariffs Of IDR 3.75 Million Entering Komodo Island, Disparekraf Responds Like This

Visitors see Komodo dragons on Komodo Island, West Manggarai, NTT, some time ago (ANTARA)

KUPANG - The Department of Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture (Disparekraf) of West Manggarai asked for socialization of the policy to increase the price of admission to Komodo Island from Rp. 150,000 to Rp. 3.75 million which will take effect on August 1, 2022.

"This discourse must be well socialized to all tourism actors so that they can prepare themselves and plan tour packages to Labuan Bajo," said Head of the West Manggarai Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture Office, Pius Baut in Labuan Bajo, Antara, Monday, July 4.

According to him, the discourse on the increase in ticket prices must be conveyed properly because it will have an impact on all tourism activities, one of which is the increase in Regional Original Income (PAD).

By 2022, local governments are targeting revenues of IDR 28 billion from the tourism sector. As of June 2022, the revenue earned has only reached Rp. 3.2 billion.

Of this figure, 90 percent of income comes from the tourist attraction of Komodo Island in the Komodo National Park (TNK) area.

It was not without cause. Pius said KNP is one of the conservation areas with a very famous tourist attraction in the world.

"Therefore, all policies related to KNP should involve all stakeholders, there are stages that are applied, and tourism actors are preparing themselves with new policy changes, not suddenly with the policy," he continued.

Previously, the plan to increase the price of admission to Komodo Island by Rp3.75 million per person has received a lot of responses from tourism actors.

A total of 14 associations of tourism actors in Labuan Bajo gave statement points at the Hearing Meeting (RDP) at the West Manggarai DPRD Office.

"We emphasize this discourse, we reject this policy without compromise," said Chief Executive of the Association of Indonesian Travel Companies (ASITA) Manggarai Raya Don Matur.

He assessed that Labuan Bajo tourism was in the process of recovering during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the situation not yet normal, this big issue will destroy local tourism which contains many local people.

According to him, a policy also needs to be discussed by sitting down to see the positive and negative impacts. Therefore, he reminded the need for good socialization to the community and all parties.