The park is made up of the three main islands, Komodo, Padar, and Rinca, as well as 26 smaller islands with beautiful views of green hills, wild deer, and pink sand beaches. The water around the island is a great place to snorkel and dive.
From the fishing town of Labuan Bajo, about 45 km away, tourists can rent boats for a day trip to the islands, or they can join a multi-day cruise from Bali or Lombok.
Tourists pay about $10 to get into a park right now, but Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno just announced a huge price hike.
He said that the new 3.75 million rupiah (HK$2,000) entrance fee would let tourists go to the park as many times as they want in a year. It would also help the government maintain the ecosystem by getting rid of trash and making sure the dragons have food and water.
The number of visitors to the national park would be limited to 200,000 per year. The minister said this would have a “positive effect on the development of a quality and sustainable creative economy in Labuan Bajo and Flores.”
“We need to limit the number of visitors as soon as possible so that we don’t regret it in the future. Some people told us that many trips have already been cancelled, but I think we can change their minds if we talk to them again.”
On August 1, Komodo National Park will charge a new fee to get in.
Indonesia has tried to change the fee to get into the national park before. In 1991, the park became a Unesco World Heritage Site.
In 2019, authorities made headlines when they said that tourists would have to pay US$1,000 per year for premium memberships that would give them access to the whole park, while non-premium memberships, whose fees were not known at the time, would give access to all islands except the main Komodo Island. The plan never came to fruition.
Jakarta’s top priority in the park is to protect the lizards, whose lives are in danger from tourism and trafficking.
In 2019, Indonesian police caught people in a smuggling ring and took five Komodo dragons and other endangered animals that were being sold on Facebook for US$1,400 each.
The announcement that there were going to be proposals to increase the entrance price was met with a variety of responses.
