How Komodo’s 2019 tourism receipts split between Jakarta and Manggarai Barat

Labuan Bajo — Local and national authorities applied different ticketing and accounting systems for visits to Komodo National Park in 2019, creating separate records for tourism revenue. According to the Manggarai Barat tourism office, receipts booked in Jakarta as non-tax state revenue from the park far exceeded what the regency collected from entrance tickets.

Agustinus Rinus, then head of the Manggarai Barat Tourism and Culture Office, said the imbalance stemmed from how access and ticketing were organised between the central government and the regency. In comments reported in December 2019, he said park managers under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry booked around Rp34 billion in non-tax state revenue, while Manggarai Barat recorded about Rp6 billion from tourism tickets linked to the same destination.

Rinus framed the figures as evidence of unequal distribution between receipts collected by the national park agency and those entering the regency’s budget. He noted that visitors could pay more than one charge on a single trip because tickets and levies were set under different legal frameworks and collected by different offices.

Separate authorities, parallel entrances

In practice, revenue was split along institutional lines rather than a single consolidated ticket. The Balai Taman Nasional Komodo, a unit of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, collected non-tax state revenue from park entrance fees and conservation services, which it reported to the central government. Manggarai Barat Regency collected its own tourism retribution from destinations inside and outside the national park under local regulations.

Local regulations treated Komodo Island and Rinca Island as tourism sites subject to regency retribution, alongside other attractions such as Batu Cermin, Gua Rangko and waterfalls near Labuan Bajo. At the same time, park entrance fees charged under national rules applied to visits in the protected area, so a trip that included Komodo or Rinca could be recorded in both revenue systems.

Rinus argued that this arrangement left the regency with only a small portion of the money generated by Labuan Bajo and Komodo tourism, despite bearing costs for roads, public services and promotion. He estimated that the overall economic value of tourism in Labuan Bajo reached around Rp2.3 trillion, while tourism-derived regional income was only tens of billions of rupiah.

Ticket structures and local regulation

Manggarai Barat’s ticket rates for key tourism sites were set under Regional Regulation No. 1 of 2018, which amended an earlier local law on recreation and sports retribution. A 2018 notice from the regency’s tourism office outlined the new tariffs for major attractions, effective 1 September 2018.

For Komodo and Rinca Islands, the regency charged Rp20,000 for local visitors, Rp50,000 for Indonesian visitors from outside the regency and Rp100,000 for foreign visitors. The same regulation also set retribution for other destinations and activities, including diving and recreational fishing, with daily charges that could be added to a visitor’s total cost.

These regency tickets were separate from national park entrance fees managed by the Balai Taman Nasional Komodo. Research using park financial data shows that non-tax state revenue from Komodo National Park rose from about Rp5.4 billion in 2014 to more than Rp33 billion in 2018, before reaching around Rp38 billion in 2019. Those figures reflect receipts reported through the central government system, not regency retribution.

Why the 2019 revenue split matters

For visitors, the dual system meant that the total amount payable could depend on the entrance used, the route chosen and which authorities levied charges along the way. According to Rinus, tourists could encounter multiple tickets or fees linked to Komodo National Park because national and regency regulations applied in parallel.

For public finance, the split separated park-derived income into different budget lines: non-tax state revenue reported by the national park agency and locally collected tourism retribution booked as regional own-source revenue. Local officials used the Rp34 billion versus Rp6 billion figures to argue for a more balanced sharing of the financial benefits from Komodo tourism, and for reforms such as a single, integrated ticketing and registration system.

Later discussions between Manggarai Barat and the central government focused on digital ticketing and one-gate registration for visits to Komodo National Park, with the aim of simplifying charges, improving safety and clarifying how revenue is divided between authorities. However, detailed, entrance-by-entrance visitor data and a full breakdown of 2019 spending on conservation, staffing and infrastructure have not been publicly consolidated in the sources consulted.

Sources

• CNN Indonesia – Pemda Manggarai Keluhkan Pendapatan Taman Nasional Komodo
• Liputan6 – Daftar Tarif Masuk Terbaru ke Objek Wisata Labuan Bajo
• Nur Vita Permatasari – Konservasi Komodo dan Izin Pembangunan Pariwisata Super Prioritas (journal article, Undip)
• Sindonews – Bernilai Rp2,3 Triliun, Penerimaan Labuan Bajo Jomplang Terhadap PAD
• Anadolu Agency – Labuan Bajo, 'surga dunia' baru di timur Indonesia
• Jurnal Flores – Ancaman Terhadap Populasi Komodo dari Dampak Kunjungan Ke TN Komodo yang Terus Meningkat
• BOPLBF (Labuan Bajo Flores Authority) – Jelang Pembukaan Pariwisata Labuan Bajo, Sistem Registrasi Online Segera Diuji Coba
• Kumparan – Taman Nasional Komodo Akan Terapkan Digitalisasi pada 2020