Only reserved for the "deep pocket", Komodo National Park's ticket price will go through the roof. (Image via The Straits Times)

Stonks! Ticket for Komodo Island raised from 80k to... 14,000k!? What gives?

Indonesian government aimed to make Komodo Island become an exclusive tourist destination on an international scale by raising the ticket price. Not joking around, they plan to hike the ticket from Rp80,000 to Rp14 million!

The plan was proposed in September during a meeting for the development of Komodo National Park, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). The meeting was attended by the Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Bakar, and the Governor of NTT, Viktor B. Laiskodat.

Luhut even went on to hike the ticket price to Rp28 million per person!

Recently, the plan resurfaced when the current Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Wishnutama, visited the National Park on 11 November during his visitation to the “Super Priority” tourist destinations in Indonesia.

Wishnutama’s visitations, spread through his Instagram account, was an effort in supervising the development of Labuan Bajo as the “Super Premium” Indonesia’s tourist destination.

Some Indonesian netizens were outraged by the news. For them, it was like the National Park is wringing their wallets dry. But, Viktor had another opinion. The Governor of NTT went frank that the National Park is now exclusive, meaning that it is reserved for the rich, not the poor.

But, rest assured, the Indonesian government has not given any consent yet. Head of the Tourism Authority in Labuan Bajo Flores, Shana Fatina Sukarsono, stated that she and her team are still calculating the budget needed for the maintenance. The meeting will start in January 2020, and the result will come out by the end of 2020.

Naturally, Komodo National Park should have been a “Premium” destination. Looking at the prospect of ultra-high net worth individual tourists, spending Rp700 million in their visit, of course, the Indonesian government is looking forward to developing the only biosphere reserve to protect the living dragon.

With the cheap ticket price, too many tourists will flood the National Park, disturbing the ecological support of the national park.

Source: https://bit.ly/2Lbb9wc