Kampung Komodo study finds tourism participation, but uneven influence

Labuan Bajo — Residents of Kampung Komodo have taken part in guiding, tourism businesses and conservation activities, but research on the village’s ecotourism economy says those roles have been uneven, with most management participation concentrated among naturalist guides.

A 2010 master’s thesis at Gadjah Mada University reported that community participation in planning reached 1%, while participation in management was split between park employees at 4%, daily labourers at 35% and tourist guides at 61%. It also said monitoring participation stood at 32%.

The thesis examined community empowerment in ecotourism at Loh Liang in Komodo National Park, drawing on documents, interviews, observation and questionnaires. Its findings suggested that local people were involved in tourism, but often as workers or program recipients rather than as decision-makers.

A separate 2015 study published in JUMPA found that people in Komodo village participated in the BNI Komodo Tourism Village program, ecotourism businesses and conservation. The study said residents were active in activities such as naturalist guiding, managing homestays, renting motorboats and making komodo-dragon sculptures.

Taken together, the studies show a community that is not absent from ecotourism, but whose influence appears limited in planning and oversight. The 2010 thesis concluded that empowerment programs were not implemented in a fully participatory way and that benefits were concentrated among guides and related workers.

The JUMPA study, based on interviews, observation and document analysis with 22 key informants, said participation brought economic, environmental and socio-cultural benefits. It also described both supporting and inhibiting factors behind community involvement.

That contrast matters because ecotourism in Komodo National Park is often presented as a model of conservation-linked development. The research cited here instead points to a narrower reality: residents can access jobs and small business opportunities, but that does not automatically translate into broader control over tourism decisions or revenue flows.

Floresa, in a 2018 analysis by Venansius Haryanto of Sunspirit for Justice and Peace in Labuan Bajo-Flores Barat, argued that ecotourism should be judged not only by income effects but also by whether residents have a real civic role in decisions affecting their community and resources.

For Kampung Komodo, the evidence available from these studies leaves a clear policy question: whether future tourism growth will widen participation beyond guiding and manual work, or continue to leave decision-making concentrated elsewhere.

Sources

• Universitas Gadjah Mada ETD Repository
• JUMPA, Universitas Udayana
• Floresa