Study flags rights concerns in Labuan Bajo tourism push

Labuan Bajo — A 2024 academic article on Labuan Bajo’s tourism drive argues that the area’s designation as a Super Priority Tourism Destination is associated with multiple alleged human-rights violations affecting work, food security, private property, equal treatment before the law, and shelter and the environment, based on secondary data and qualitative analysis.

The study, titled Human Rights Violations in the Development of the Super Priority Tourism Destination Labuan Bajo by Muhammad Reza Pahlevi, appears in Volume 11, Issue 1 of Jurnal Pemikiran Sosiologi (JPS). According to the journal, the article was accepted on 25 October 2024 and published online on 8 November 2024.

How the study frames Labuan Bajo’s development

Pahlevi situates Labuan Bajo’s transformation within Indonesia’s policy to create Super Priority Tourism Destinations, a programme launched following a limited cabinet meeting chaired by President Joko Widodo on 15 July 2019 on the development of priority tourism destinations. Government infrastructure-planning documents from the Ministry of Public Works and Housing’s regional infrastructure development agency describe the meeting as the moment when tourism development was intensified in selected destinations as part of efforts to increase visitor numbers and compete with other countries.

The JPS article reports that, in this context, Labuan Bajo’s tourism area experienced what the author characterises as human-rights violations. These are described as the loss of the right to work and obtain food security, threats to private property rights, unequal treatment before the law, and impacts on the right to housing and a healthy environment.

The study links these reported harms to an asymmetric relationship in which the government and investors are said to have regulatory and institutional support, while local communities become vulnerable.

Pahlevi attributes the situation to close ties between government actors and investors, arguing that regulatory support and the actions of state apparatus have prioritised development interests. This is presented as an academic interpretation drawn from available secondary sources, not as an official finding that specific agencies or companies violated the law.

The article notes that civil-society alliances and community networks have resisted aspects of the development process, using solidarity and social media to voice opposition. However, the published text focuses on types of rights impacts rather than providing detailed case-by-case data such as the number of households affected, the identities of individual properties or the outcomes of specific legal disputes.

Policy backdrop and funding figures

The JPS study connects Labuan Bajo’s status as a Super Priority Tourism Destination to national tourism planning instruments, including Indonesia’s National Tourism Development Master Plan 2010–2025 and the 2020–2024 National Medium-Term Development Plan. It reports that the central government expected Super Priority Destinations to strengthen economic resilience and increase tourism-related foreign exchange income.

Within this policy framework, other academic work has also highlighted Labuan Bajo’s designation as one of five Super Priority Tourism Destinations, alongside Lake Toba, Borobudur, Mandalika and Likupang, citing the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as the source. Studies on Labuan Bajo’s tourism strategies describe strong government support, improved infrastructure and efforts to boost economic growth, while noting remaining weaknesses such as environmental pressures and unequal benefits for local communities.

Pahlevi’s article states that budget allocations for Labuan Bajo increased over time and reached 12.35 trillion rupiah during the Covid-19 pandemic for tourism-area development and measures to improve the local economy. The study does not specify in detail the time frame for this spending, the list of individual projects, implementing agencies or audit results, and independent sources consulted here do not break down that specific figure.

Open rights questions around the programme

By focusing on rights impacts, the JPS article raises broader questions about the social consequences of tourism-led development. It asks who receives the benefits of investments and who bears the costs, particularly in terms of continued access to work and food, secure housing, protection of property rights and equal participation in decision-making.

Other academic analyses of Labuan Bajo and similar super priority destinations document both opportunities and risks, including economic gains, environmental pressures and disparities among local residents. Together, these studies point to a need for more granular, publicly available information about land acquisition, compensation, consultation processes, employment patterns, environmental safeguards and complaint mechanisms in Labuan Bajo.

The publication of Pahlevi’s article on 8 November 2024 adds a rights-based perspective to existing research on Labuan Bajo’s tourism transformation, but it is an academic assessment rather than a court judgment or official investigation, and independently verified data on specific alleged violations remain limited in the sources reviewed.

Sources

• Jurnal Pemikiran Sosiologi (Human Rights Violations in the Development of the Super Priority Tourism Destination Labuan Bajo)
• Buletin BPIW SINERGI Edisi 44 – Badan Pengembangan Infrastruktur Wilayah, Kementerian PUPR
• Cabinet Secretariat of the Republic of Indonesia – Limited Meeting on Development of Priority Tourism Destinations, 15 July 2019
• Liputan6 article on the designation of Super Priority Tourism Destinations
• "Strategies for the Development of Super-Priority Tourism to Increase Economic Growth in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai Regency" – Jurnal Dharmawangsa
• Various academic journal articles citing Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy on Super Priority Tourism Destinations