Study puts Manggarai Barat tourism retribution at Rp56.98 billion over 2007–2022

Labuan Bajo — Manggarai Barat collected just under Rp57 billion in tourism retribution between 2007 and 2022, according to a regional tourism-revenue series reproduced in a local economics thesis drawing on data from the Manggarai Barat Tourism Office. The annual figures show receipts rising steadily before peaking in 2019, then dropping sharply during the COVID‑19 pandemic and rebounding in 2022.

The thesis, hosted in the repository of Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira, reports a cumulative tourism-retribution total of Rp56,983,367,759 over 2007–2022, with the lowest annual collection in 2007 and the highest in 2019. It attributes the data to the Manggarai Barat Tourism Office and presents them as realised tourism retribution, without detailing whether the amounts correspond to specific subcategories in the regional budget or to particular fee instruments.

In 2019 the thesis records tourism retribution of Rp13,456,451,878, far above the Rp752,423,000 reported for 2007 and the Rp7,34 billion range seen in the late 2010s. A planning document prepared by the Manggarai Barat administration for 2021–2026 similarly shows tourism-sector locally generated revenue (PAD) of about Rp18.46 billion in 2019 and around Rp9.44 billion in 2022, indicating that tourism-linked receipts were a notable contributor to overall PAD in those years despite pandemic disruptions.

The thesis’ annual table lists tourism retribution of Rp8,436,606,000 in 2022, up sharply from Rp2,672,490,000 in 2020 and Rp2,496,720,000 in 2021. The author links the 2020–2021 decline to mobility restrictions and other COVID‑19 measures and describes the 2022 increase as a sign of post‑pandemic recovery in local tourism activity. Taken together, the figures imply that the 2019 peak alone represented roughly one quarter of the 16‑year cumulative total.

Tourist visits and attractions expanded

The same thesis reports 1,027,916 tourist visits to Manggarai Barat over 2007–2022, with annual arrivals rising from 6,216 in 2007 to 256,609 in 2019, falling to 60,439 in 2020 and 40,505 in 2021, then recovering to 170,354 in 2022. These movements broadly match other local tourism statistics: for example, data cited by the Manggarai Barat tourism office and reported by local and national outlets show total visits of 163,054 in 2018 and 256,609 in 2019, followed by much lower counts in 2020–2021 and a partial rebound in 2022.

Local reporting based on tourism office data notes that 170,352 tourists visited Labuan Bajo in 2022, considerably fewer than the 256,609 recorded in 2019, underlining that overall visits have not yet returned to pre‑pandemic levels. The thesis describes tourism retribution as weakening during the pandemic years and improving along with visitor numbers as travel restrictions eased. However, the available material does not specify the ticket prices, coverage of fees, visitor composition or compliance rates, so the figures cannot be used to infer a fixed revenue yield per visitor.

There is an internal inconsistency in the thesis’ narrative: its table identifies 2019, at 256,609 visits, as the highest year for tourist arrivals, yet a later passage refers to 2022, with fewer visitors, as the peak year. External data from the Manggarai Barat Tourism Office, cited in independent publications, support 2019 as the actual peak, suggesting the 2022 ranking in the narrative section is erroneous and should be checked against the underlying official records.

The thesis also tracks the number of listed tourism attractions, reporting 52 attractions per year from 2007 through 2016 and 87 from 2017 through 2022. That increase aligns with the broader expansion of tourism offerings in Manggarai Barat, although the thesis does not specify whether the additional listings represent new sites, newly recognised destinations or changes in administrative classification.

Tourism’s link to local revenue and growth

A separate study by Stefen Yustinus Aneldus and Made Heny Urmila Dewi, published in the E‑Jurnal Ekonomi Pembangunan of Universitas Udayana in 2020, assesses how tourism-related variables affect Manggarai Barat’s locally generated revenue (PAD) and economic growth. Using secondary data from government agencies and path analysis, the authors model the relationships between tourist visits, length of stay, hotel occupancy, PAD and economic growth.

According to summaries of that work in later academic references, the study finds that tourist visits and length of stay have positive and statistically significant effects on PAD, while hotel occupancy also supports PAD. It further reports that tourist visits have a positive and significant impact on economic growth, whereas length of stay and hotel occupancy have positive but statistically non‑significant effects; PAD itself shows a positive and significant relationship with economic growth.

These findings apply specifically to Manggarai Barat and to PAD, a broader fiscal category than tourism retribution. PAD includes local taxes, local retribution, income from separated regional assets and other lawful local revenue, so the study’s results cannot be interpreted as a direct explanation of the Rp56.98 billion in tourism‑retribution receipts reported in the Widya Mandira thesis.

Sources

• Universitas Katolik Widya Mandira repository – BAB V thesis on Manggarai Barat tourism retribution
• Manggarai Barat RPJMD 2021–2026 (regional development plan)
• Congkasae.com report on Manggarai Barat tourism and PAD
• Detikcom article on Labuan Bajo tourist visit trends
• E-Jurnal Ekonomi Pembangunan Universitas Udayana – Aneldus & Dewi (2020)
• Onesearch record for Aneldus & Dewi article
• UIN Kiai Haji Achmad Siddiq thesis literature review citing Aneldus & Dewi