Werry Tan Says Labuan Bajo Has Fewer Than 3,000 Hotel Rooms

Labuan Bajo — Bank Nobu executive Werry Tan said Labuan Bajo still has fewer than 3,000 hotel rooms and needs more accommodation, from mid-market properties to internationally standard hotels, according to a report published on 11 September 2026 by Investortrust.id. In the same remarks, he also called for airport expansion, a longer runway, an integrated international marina and improved fuel supply infrastructure.

The account was repeated in another Indonesian business report that also said Tan, a senior managing executive in Bank Nobu’s regional enterprise banking operation in Labuan Bajo, outlined four priorities for the destination’s next stage of growth. The report said the remarks were made at a Kadin Diplomatic Economic Breakfast in Jakarta and attended by Tourism Minister Widiyanti Putri Wardhana, diplomats and Kadin leaders.

Tan’s room-supply figure was presented as an estimate rather than a published inventory. The reports do not provide a room-by-room count, a breakdown by hotel segment or occupancy data, so the size of any accommodation gap cannot be measured from the published material alone.

His broader case was that Labuan Bajo’s tourism growth has outpaced supporting infrastructure. He said additional hotel capacity would help the destination welcome more visitors, encourage longer stays and lift spending in the local economy.

Four priorities for growth

Tan’s first priority was accommodation. He urged investors to build more hotels, especially in the mid-market and international-standard categories, according to the reports.

His second priority was aviation. He called for expansion of the airport and extension of the runway so Labuan Bajo could support more direct international flights and receive wide-body aircraft.

The third priority was a marina. Tan said the Labuan Bajo and Komodo area already hosts more than 100 tourist boats, yachts, pinisi vessels and premium vessels, and that the region needs a single integrated marina with berthing, maintenance, refuelling, technical services, accommodation and restaurants.

The fourth priority was fuel. He said fuel supply can become difficult at times and that storage facilities are not ideally located, a situation he argued could affect boat operators, transport companies, hotels and other tourism businesses.

Labuan Bajo has become one of Indonesia’s best-known marine tourism gateways, drawing visitors to Komodo National Park and surrounding waters. The reports described its tourism ecosystem as expanding, with diving operators, restaurants, accommodation providers and other services already established in the area.

They also said expatriates, especially from Europe and the United States, have opened businesses in Labuan Bajo and that some restaurants are already competing at international standards. No public commitment, funding decision or construction schedule for the hotel, airport, marina or fuel proposals was included in the reports.

Why the number matters

For investors and travellers, room supply is one of the clearest indicators of whether Labuan Bajo can absorb more visitors without pushing prices up sharply in peak periods. But the published reports stop short of the data needed to test that claim, including category-level supply, rates, occupancy and seasonality.

That means the most defensible reading of Tan’s remarks is narrower than a full market study: Labuan Bajo’s tourism ambitions are growing, and one senior banker is arguing that hotels, transport links and maritime services need to expand with them.

At the same event, Tan framed those upgrades as part of a single tourism system rather than separate projects. In his view, more rooms, better air access, a proper marina and more reliable fuel storage would help Labuan Bajo move into its next phase of growth.

The remarks did not amount to an announcement of a new development pipeline. They were a call for investment in the infrastructure Tan said the destination needs to sustain its international tourism role.

Sources

• Investortrust.id
• RM.id