Cancelled Komodo fee 2022: what actually happened

By Komodo National Park Fee Editorial Desk

Sourced figures: fees in the table carry their source and check month. They are official or third-party figures, not our offers, and they change. This guide is not the park authority.

The cancelled Komodo fee of 2022 was a provincial charge for visiting Komodo and Padar, set under a governor's regulation dated 28 July 2022. It triggered a tourism strike and a ministerial objection, was postponed, and was withdrawn on 15 December 2022. It is not a current price; today's state ticket comes from a different regulation.

What was the cancelled Komodo fee of 2022?

It was a charge from East Nusa Tenggara province, not from the national park authority. According to Valid News, Governor Regulation 85/2022, dated 28 July 2022, used its Article 9 to bar visits to Komodo, Padar and the surrounding waters, an area given as 712.12 hectares, for tourists who had not paid a contribution.

Kompas reported the amount as a figure per person for one year, or a group figure per four people. Both appear in the price table on this page, labelled as cancelled. The unit is the unusual part: a yearly contribution, in a park whose state ticket is charged by the day. If an article gives a yearly figure, check its date.

How did events unfold?

Why did workers strike?

The size of the jump was the flashpoint. The Guardian reported that the fee to access the two main islands rose about 18 times overnight on 1 August 2022, and that hundreds of tourism workers went on strike. The BBC reported a lower prior price and said 700 local workers would strike until the end of August.

"Hundreds" and 700 do not conflict, since the BBC simply gives a count and a duration. Both reports describe the same sequence: a sudden increase, followed by a stoppage among local tourism workers.

Why did the ministry object?

On legal grounds. According to Valid News, the forestry minister wrote that the article conflicted with the law, because the public may access the area after paying the valid state ticket. In plain terms, the ministry's position was that entry depends on the state ticket, and that a provincial condition could not be added on top of it.

This is the most useful part of the story for a visitor today. It explains why the state ticket remains the document that decides entry, and why any additional charge deserves the question of who sets it. The page on the so-called Komodo conservation fee applies the same question to a line that operators still mention.

Was it ever charged?

Reports differ on the first days. The Guardian describes the rise as taking place on 1 August 2022, whereas Nikkei Asia reports postponement through the end of 2022, and Valid News reports the minister saying on 15 December 2022 that the plan had been withdrawn and cancelled before 1 January 2023. Those reports leave open whether any visitor paid it in the days around the start date.

What they do settle is the outcome. According to Valid News, the park tariff stayed under Government Regulation 12/2014 after the cancellation. No version of the yearly charge remained in place.

What came before it in 2019?

A closure plan. The Guardian reported on 1 October 2019 that East Nusa Tenggara province had said Komodo Island would close for a year from January 2020, and that the environment minister then cancelled the idea. Skift followed with a report of a membership fee being floated, and talk of a four-figure dollar charge at Komodo leads back to that story. It described an upper limit on an idea. Together with 2022, that makes two occasions on which a plan announced by the province was stopped at national level. Both left headlines behind, which is part of why old numbers keep resurfacing.

Why does it still appear online?

International coverage outlasts the news. The Guardian, the BBC and Nikkei Asia all covered the fee in 2022, and those articles stay online with a striking number attached. Later events make the picture harder to read, because several separate ideas look alike:

• The 2019 membership idea. Older than the 2022 fee, and a different proposal.
• The 2022 provincial fee. The subject of this page, withdrawn before it took lasting effect.
• The 2023 guide charges. The province-owned company PT Flobamor raised naturalist guide charges in 2023, per Detik and Floresa. That concerned guiding, and a reader could easily mistake it for the entry fee. Floresa reports the company's cooperation with the park authority ended on 22 May 2024.
• The regional charges. West Manggarai regency collected its own charge at Loh Liang until May 2023, per Detik. It came from a third level of government and has also stopped.
• The current state ticket. The only one of these that applies to an entrance today.

When an article gives a very high yearly or membership figure, look at its date first. If it is from 2019 or 2022, it describes one of the plans above. Our timeline of fee rule changes places each one in order and marks whether it applied.

How is it different from the 2024 increase?

The two are easy to run together, because both were announced as a higher cost of visiting Komodo and both produced headlines. They have almost nothing else in common:

The park head told CNN Indonesia the 2024 rise reflected inflation in the decade since the 2014 regulation. So an article complaining about a recent jump in the Komodo fee may be describing a real, current change, while an article about a yearly charge is describing something that was stopped. Reading the unit is the quickest way to tell them apart.

What applies now?

A daily ticket. The park authority's poster sets the foreign tourist line per person per day, under Government Regulation 36/2024, which the park head told Antara replaced the 2014 regulation. There is no yearly line on the poster and no membership product. The price table sets the current foreign line beside the former one and the two cancelled figures, so you can see which is which. The Komodo National Park fee overview explains that daily ticket line by line.

If a seller today mentions a yearly charge or a provincial contribution, ask for the document that sets it and compare it with the park's poster. A genuine state charge will be traceable to the state's published tariff.

What else do people ask about the 2022 fee?

Was the 2022 Komodo fee ever charged?

Reports differ on the early days. The Guardian describes the rise as taking place on 1 August 2022, while Nikkei Asia reports postponement and Valid News reports cancellation on 15 December 2022. Whether any visitor paid it is left open by those reports.

Is the 2022 provincial fee still in force?

No. The tourism minister said on 15 December 2022 that the plan was withdrawn and cancelled. Today's entrance ticket comes from Government Regulation 36/2024 and is charged per person per day.

Why did Komodo tourism workers strike in 2022?

The strike followed a sudden rise in the cost of reaching Komodo and Padar, which The Guardian put at about 18 times. The BBC reported that 700 local workers would stop work until the end of August.

Is there a yearly Komodo pass today?

The park authority's poster has no yearly line. Its entrance ticket is per person per day, so a yearly figure in an article is probably describing the cancelled plan.

Was the 2019 membership idea the same as the 2022 fee?

No. Skift reported a membership fee being floated in October 2019 after a planned closure of Komodo Island was cancelled. The 2022 fee came later, from a provincial regulation.

Which sources support this page?

• Valid News: the ticket price rise that did not happen
• Kompas: the 2022 fee controversy
• The Guardian: fee rise triggers strike
• BBC: Komodo fee and strike
• Nikkei Asia: fee postponed until 2023
• Skift: new fee idea after the closure plan, 2019
• The Guardian: Komodo Island closure cancelled, 2019
• Detik: West Manggarai loses park revenue
• Antara: park authority briefing on the new tariff
• Komodo National Park authority: tariff poster
• Floresa: end of the PT Flobamor cooperation
• CNN Indonesia: tariff list from 30 October 2024
• Audit board database: Government Regulation 36/2024

How do I reach the desk?

Seen a figure that looks like the 2022 plan on a quote or a website? Share it with the desk through WhatsApp 628113823875 or email. We can tell you which rule it seems to come from. We are a private desk, with no authority over any park charge. Since people who contact us may go on to buy a trip, we have a commercial interest in these conversations. Only a written offer sets out a price or binds a company.