How big is tourism in Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park?

Tourism to Labuan Bajo and Komodo National Park is a mid-sized but volatile market: according to the Manggarai Barat Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture Office in 2025, total visitors to Labuan Bajo reached 423,847 people in 2023 and then slipped to 411,349 in 2024, while the Komodo National Park authority reported 300,488 visitors inside the park in 2023 and 334,206 in 2024, showing growth in park visits even as overall arrivals eased.

How many tourists visit Labuan Bajo and Komodo each year?

According to the Manggarai Barat Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture Office as quoted by a national news outlet in January 2025, Labuan Bajo recorded 423,847 tourists in 2023 and 411,349 tourists in 2024; the same report notes that the 2024 figure is a decline from the previous year but still above pre-2020 levels, with the numbers covering both domestic and international visitors to the wider Labuan Bajo area.

Inside the protected area, the Komodo National Park authority reported that the park received 300,488 visitors in 2023 and 334,206 visitors in 2024, according to a January 2025 interview cited by regional media; the park’s 2024 total was broken down into 226,948 foreign tourists and 107,258 domestic tourists, indicating that international visitors now make up the majority of park entries.

Badan Pusat Statistik Manggarai Barat, in its 2024 statistical yearbook, reported that hotel guests in the regency totaled 300,437 people in 2023, with about 62.08 percent recorded as domestic guests and 37.92 percent as foreign guests; this hotel-guest count is lower than the wider visitor totals from the tourism office because it only covers guests staying in registered hotel accommodation, not all tourists staying in other lodgings or visiting on day trips.

How important is foreign tourism compared with domestic tourism?

The Komodo National Park authority’s breakdown for 2024 shows that foreign tourists accounted for 226,948 of the park’s 334,206 visitors, while domestic tourists made up 107,258 visitors, according to the January 2025 report by a regional newspaper; in percentage terms, the majority of park visitors that year were foreign, reversing the pattern from 2023 when domestic visitors still dominated the Komodo numbers.

For Labuan Bajo as a whole, the Manggarai Barat tourism office data cited by a national lifestyle outlet in January 2024 stated that total Komodo National Park visits in 2023 included both domestic and foreign tourists and that the wider Manggarai Barat visitor count up to November 2023 had already reached 393,386 people; the same official projected that the full-year total could surpass 400,000, a projection later confirmed by the January 2025 statement that fixed the 2023 figure at 423,847 visitors.

Badan Pusat Statistik Manggarai Barat’s hotel guest data for 2023, published in the 2024 regency statistics report, shows that domestic guests remain the majority in registered hotels, at around six out of ten hotel guests; this contrasts with Komodo National Park’s 2024 composition, where foreign tourists formed about two-thirds of park visitors, suggesting that foreign tourists are more concentrated in high-profile nature attractions while domestic tourists contribute strongly to hotel occupancy in town.

What does this scale of tourism mean for local tourism businesses?

The Manggarai Barat development planning agency, in a 2023 horticulture study that cites Badan Pusat Statistik Manggarai Barat data, reported that the regency had 91 hotels and guesthouses in 2023 and that hotel guests totaled 421,255 people that year, slightly higher than the 300,437 hotel-guest figure in the 2024 BPS yearbook because the study used a different compilation; even using the lower BPS number, the volume of hotel guests implies steady demand for accommodation, restaurant and transport services in Labuan Bajo.

The same horticulture study notes that visitor numbers in 2023 were reported differently by the tourism office and the statistics office, with the study citing an unofficial compilation that put total visitors at 423,847 and stating that this figure represented a 19.11 percent increase or 68,011 people compared with the earlier statistic release; for tourism businesses, such discrepancies make it important to pay attention to which data series is being used when planning investment or staffing.

Badan Pusat Statistik Manggarai Barat’s accommodation statistics for 2023, as provided in the 2024 regency publication, show 4,324 arrivals and 4,328 departures recorded for transport movements linked to tourism, and the same document states that hotel guests reached 300,437 people; while the publication does not directly quantify employment, this scale of guest nights typically supports a local ecosystem of hotels, liveaboard boats, drivers and tour guides whose revenues depend on these visitor flows.

How seasonal and volatile are Komodo tourism numbers?

The Komodo National Park authority’s monthly breakdown for 2024, published in a January 2025 regional news report, shows that visits peaked in August 2024 at 43,302 visitors and were lowest in January 2024 at 13,420 visitors; the same report lists monthly counts between those extrema, with a second-highest peak in October at 42,898 visitors, illustrating a strong mid-year high season that matters for staffing and maintenance schedules.

A July 2024 report by a regional outlet, citing the Komodo National Park authority, noted that from January to June 2024 the park had already received 129,621 visitors, up from 102,362 visitors in the same period of 2023; the head of the park stated in that report that May 2024 recorded 33,352 visits, with 21,033 of those being foreign tourists, indicating that high season now tends to cluster around the shoulder months of April to June as well as August.

A national travel desk report published in January 2025, quoting the Manggarai Barat tourism office, linked the decline in Labuan Bajo’s total 2024 visitors from 423,847 to 411,349 to disruptions including volcanic activity on nearby islands, illustrating how external shocks can quickly be reflected in annual tourism counts and reminding operators and investors that Komodo’s tourism market remains sensitive to transport and safety perceptions.

How do these visitor numbers relate to government revenue and policy?

A January 2025 article in a business-focused news site reported that non-tax state revenue from Komodo National Park entrance and conservation fees reached about 53 billion rupiah in 2024, citing figures from the Komodo National Park authority; in the same report, the authority tied this revenue directly to the 334,206 total visitors, stating that the jump from 300,488 visitors in 2023 was a key factor in the higher revenue collection.

The Komodo National Park authority and the Manggarai Barat tourism office, in their respective interviews in early 2024 and early 2025, both underlined that visitor statistics are used to calibrate carrying-capacity policies and marketing campaigns; the park’s breakdown of domestic and foreign visitors, and the tourism office’s monthly visitor data for Labuan Bajo, provide the baseline that national and regional governments use when deciding on policies such as quota proposals, fee adjustments or infrastructure investments in the Labuan Bajo–Komodo corridor.

Badan Pusat Statistik Manggarai Barat’s 2024 regency statistics, which compile hotel guest numbers and the number of hotels and guesthouses, are the primary reference for local planners assessing accommodation capacity; when combined with the tourism office’s annual visitor totals and the Komodo National Park authority’s park-entry counts, these official data series give businesses, investors and workers a factual picture of the size and seasonality of the Labuan Bajo and Komodo tourism economy.

Sources

• Detikcom Bali Wisata desk
• Liputan6 Lifestyle
• Pos-Kupang
• Badan Pusat Statistik Kabupaten Manggarai Barat
• Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan Daerah
• Koran Media