JAKARTA - Member of the East Nusa Tenggara Provincial DPRD, Yohanes Rumat, assessed that the frequent sinking of tourist boats was detrimental to the image of Labuan Bajo tourism as one of the premium tourist destinations in the country.
"The incident of a tourist boat in Labuan Bajo that often sinks is very detrimental to its image as a destination that is touted as premium tourism," said Yohanes Rumat when contacted in Kupang, Wednesday, January 25.
He said this was in response to the incident of tourist boats in Labuan Bajo who often carried tourists to travel in Komodo National Park, Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai Regency.
A series of tourist boats in Labuan Bajo that have sunk or burned in recent years, namely in June 2021, September 2021, and December 2021, January 2022.
The latest incident was the Tiana Liveaboard KLM ship which sank in the waters of Labuan Bajo on Saturday (21/1/2023) which carried as many as 14 tourists consisting of 10 foreign tourists and four domestic tourists.
Yohanes regretted that the tourist boat that sank in the latest incident had the status of evidence of a criminal case.
The NTT DPRD member from Commission II, who partnered with the NTT Province Tourism and Creative Economy Office, said that the occurrence of sinking tour boats often shows that the provincial and district governments are still weak in managing or arranging regulations that bind parties involved in the tourism sector in Labuan Bajo.
All tourism stakeholders, he said, should be in one place that is bound by government regulations so that they operate under supervision.
"The conditions in Labuan Bajo are parties such as associations, tourism actors, tourists, such as being left free without being bound by government regulations," he said, quoted from Antara.
This is shown by the operation of tourist ships that are not feasible to operate so that it leads to a sinking ship that threatens the safety of tourists.
"The sinking tourist ships are also generally managed by perpetrators who are not members of the association, be it travel agents, tourist boats, and others," he said.
Furthermore, Yohanes also reminded the public or prospective tourists who want to travel in Labuan Bajo to find out clearly about the travel agent that handles it.
"Don't just because the tour package is cheap, so you just choose it without paying attention to the security and safety aspects prepared by the travel agent," he said.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
