Visitor Numbers to Komodo National Park Limited to 365,000 People per Year
Visitor numbers to Komodo National Park in Labuan Bajo, West Manggarai, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), will be limited to a maximum of 365,000 people per year. This policy will begin in 2026, implementing a daily quota of 1,000 tourists.
The annual target for visits to the park will decrease from the total of 429,509 tourists in 2025. “365,000 per year, so on average 1,000 times 365 days, that’s 365,000,” said the Head of the Komodo National Park Authority (BTNK), Hendrikus Rani Siga, on Monday (30/3/2026).
The man nicknamed Hengki explained that the policy is based on the results of a carrying capacity study (DDDT) for Komodo National Park conducted in 2018. The study was carried out by the Bali Nusra Ecoregion Development Control Centre (P3E) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), an independent global conservation organisation.
“It is based on the 2018 study results, which set the optimal visit limit at 366,000 something (366,108) per year, but to simplify, we approach it as an average of 1,000 per day,” Hengki clarified.
He said that when the study was conducted, tourist visits to Komodo National Park were only 176,830 people. In 2024, visits began approaching the maximum limit. The study’s results are only being implemented from 2026 because tourist visits to Komodo National Park in 2025 have already exceeded the maximum DDDT limit according to the 2018 study.
“In 2018, visits were 176,000, still far below, so why didn’t we intervene then? We are intervening in 2026 because in 2024 it was only 334,000, not yet exceeding, but in 2025 it has exceeded, so in 2026 we intervene,” Hengki explained.
He dismissed accusations that BTNK is using outdated data to implement the visitor restriction policy to Komodo National Park. Hengki also emphasised that it was not BTNK that conducted the study. His side is merely implementing the recommendations from the P3E Bali Nusra and WWF study.
“People say why use old data. It’s not old data. It’s valid data based on scientific study and proper methods,” Hengki asserted firmly.
“And they always say why isn’t the methodology open to the public. We are an institution that uses research results and study outcomes; we are not the experts in that area. We are implementing the recommendations from those experts: ‘be careful, this has exceeded the carrying capacity, it’s overtourism now’. That’s what the experts say; we are the users, we are carrying out those recommendations,” he added.
Tourist visits to Komodo National Park have been increasing continuously since 2018. Visits temporarily declined in 2020-2022 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The tourist visit figures are: 2018 (176,830 people), 2019 (221,703), 2020 (51,618), 2021 (65,362), 2022 (170,077), 2023 (300,488), 2024 (333,846), and 2025 (429,509).