Foreign visits to East Nusa Tenggara rose 40.7% in June 2026

Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara — East Nusa Tenggara recorded 29,152 foreign-tourist visits in June 2026, up 40.73 percent year on year from 20,715 visits in June 2025, according to Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data cited in an August provincial tourism report and national economic coverage.

The figures show that international travel to the province was growing strongly in the months before the mid-August earthquake that struck Flores, providing a benchmark for pre-disaster tourism demand.

BPS records describe the metric as the number of visits by foreign tourists, not necessarily the number of unique visitors to East Nusa Tenggara during the month.

• June 2026: 29,152 reported foreign-tourist visits
• June 2025: 20,715 reported foreign-tourist visits
• Year-on-year change: 40.73 percent, or 8,437 additional visits

What the figure shows — and what it does not

The June 2026 total is reported in a BPS tourism publication for East Nusa Tenggara and echoed in national economic analysis that cites the agency’s data for the province.

Both sources identify the metric as foreign-tourist visits to East Nusa Tenggara as a whole.

They do not provide a breakdown by nationality, purpose of travel, length of stay, accommodation type or entry point, nor do they indicate how many individual travellers were counted within the total number of visits.

The data also do not specify which destinations within the province drove the increase.

Labuan Bajo, gateway to Komodo National Park, is one of East Nusa Tenggara’s main tourism centres, but the reported figures are provincial aggregates and do not offer district-level or airport-level comparisons for June 2026.

As a result, the 40.73 percent year-on-year rise is best understood as a province-wide benchmark rather than evidence that any single destination, including Labuan Bajo, accounted for the growth.

June tourism as a pre-earthquake baseline

The June 2026 data precede the 15 August 2026 magnitude 7.7 earthquake that affected parts of Flores.

Subsequent assessments by the Labuan Bajo Flores Tourism Authority (BPOLBF) and national broadcasters reported damage to dozens of hotels, restaurants and cafes, as well as temporary closures at tourist attractions across Flores.

One English-language report citing BPOLBF data said that, as of 24 August, 54 hospitality venues in Flores had been affected, with 47 categorized as heavily damaged and seven lightly damaged, while seven tourist destinations had reopened and 11 remained closed.

In the same coverage, the chairman of the East Nusa Tenggara branch of the Association of Indonesian Tour and Travel Agencies (ASITA), Oyan Kristian, urged authorities to focus recovery efforts on three foundations of tourism: attractions, amenities and accessibility.

He stressed that these elements needed to be fully restored and verified as safe before destinations could resume receiving visitors at scale.

Tourism operations after the quake

Monitoring by BPOLBF and the Ministry of Tourism in the days after the earthquake indicated that marine tourism around Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park remained largely operational, even as some inland destinations elsewhere in Flores stayed closed pending safety inspections.

On 16 August, the harbour office in Labuan Bajo recorded the departure of 308 tourist vessels carrying 3,651 passengers, including 2,840 foreign tourists, according to a ministry-backed travel industry report.

By 22 August, Komodo National Park, Komodo International Airport and key coastal attractions near Labuan Bajo were reported to be open and operating normally, with tourism activities proceeding under heightened safety monitoring.

Those post-disaster operational updates use different metrics — daily movements through ports and attractions — and are not directly comparable to BPS’s monthly provincial visit totals.

For that reason, the June 2026 figure of 29,152 foreign-tourist visits should be treated as a pre-earthquake baseline for East Nusa Tenggara’s international tourism demand, rather than a measure of the recovery that followed the Flores earthquake.

Sources

• STATISTIK PARIWISATA PROVINSI NUSA TENGGARA TIMUR TOURISM ... (BPS NTT PDF)
• Increase in foreign tourist visits to NTT
• Pemerintah Genjot Investasi dan Pariwisata demi Dorong Ekonomi RI di Kuartal III
• Earthquake Destroys Tens Hospitality Venues in Flores
• LABUAN BAJO TOURISM BACKS TO NORMAL, BPOLBF ASSESSES EARTHQUAKE IMPACT