Tourism Minister's Labuan Bajo Agenda: From Golo Koe Festival to Investment Talks

Tourism Minister (Menpar) Widiyanti Putri Wardhana conducted a working visit to a number of locations in Labuan Bajo, including opening the Golo Koe 2026 Festival at the Waterfront Marina Labuan Bajo.

The first agenda was visiting Golo Mori to discuss MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Convention, and Exhibition) with InJourney as the area manager.

Next, the Minister inspected the Parapuar authority area managed by the Labuan Bajo Flores Authority Implementing Agency (BPO-LBF) to ensure readiness to receive tourism investment in the area.

At Parapuar, the Minister presented certificates to UMKM that won the Floratama programme. This programme is for food-sector UMKM that are being developed to become food suppliers for the hotel, restaurant and café (horeka) industry in Labuan Bajo.

“After continuing an internal meeting with BPO-LBF, the Tourism Minister is scheduled to open the Golo Koe 2026 Festival, the largest cultural and religious festival in West Manggarai held at the Waterfront Marina Labuan Bajo,” said Ministry of Tourism spokesperson Apni Jaya Putra in a statement on Monday (10/8/2026).

There had been reports that Minister Widiyanti would hold a dialogue with tourism operators and UMKM in the Puncak Waringin area of Labuan Bajo. In that dialogue, Widiyanti was said to be planning to convey six strategic tourism issues in Labuan Bajo.

However, it later emerged that the dialogue was not held. Head of the West Manggarai Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture Office (Disparekrafbud) Peter A. Rasyid confirmed this, but did not know the reason for the cancellation.

Apni confirmed that the Minister did not cancel the agenda. He stressed that there was indeed no such agenda on the Minister’s visit schedule.

“So there was indeed no schedule listed to meet with UMKM at Puncak Waringin,” Apni asserted.