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It was a great day for Indonesia on July 21st 2009, when a panel of specialists from the Foundation of the ‘New Seven Wonders of Nature’ announced that Komodo National Park had successfully reached the 28 Finalists to become part of these new seven Wonders of Nature. Komodo national Park was selected among over 440 participants to the contest. The decision for the final ‘7 Wonders of Nature’ will be announced in 2011.
Komodo National Park’s selection among the finalists dragged the enthusiastic support among Indonesian and many foreigners as well as from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia, who is working as "Komodo National Park Official Supporting Committee", The Ministry has already announced that it will continue to support Komodo National Park by conducting various awareness campaigns to encourage Indonesian people to continue to support Komodo National Park candidacy.
Komodo National Park (KNP) is located in East Nusa Tenggara (N.T.T.) stretching on 1,817 km 2. The Park includes three major islands, Komodo, Rinca and Padar and numerous smaller islands representing 603 km2 of land. The total size of Komodo National Park is presently 1,817 km2. Indonesia has already proposed to extend further the National Park by another 25 km2 of land (Banta Island) and 479 km2 of marine waters. It would bring then the total surface area up to 2,321 km2.
The unique fauna and flora on Komodo Island prompted in 1986 UNESCO to declare KNP a World Heritage Site. The Park is hoe to the famous Komodo Dragon (Komodo lizard) which can measure up to three meters and weight up to 160 kg. Some 2,500 lizards live in the Park. They are the largest living reptiles in the world and can probably be considered as the last animals from a prehistoric era. Despite their fierce appearance, Komodo Dragons are not active hunters but attack already wounded or weak animals.
The Komodo National Park offers also spectacular landscapes consisting of savannas, rain forests, white beaches, beautiful corals and clear blue waters. Horses, wild buffalos, deers, wild boars, snakes, monkeys and various types of birds live within the Park’s boundaries.
The KNP under-waters are considered as one of the most beautiful spots in he world for diving. 385 species of beautiful corals, 70 types of sponges, 10 types of dolphins, 6 types of whales, green turtles and various types of sharks and stingrays as well as thousand of fish species have been identified.
International tourist arrivals to Indonesia still growing in 2009
After forecasting a slight drop in total foreign arrivals due mainly to the world economic crisis, Indonesia managed successfully to record a growth of 0.8% of total visitors in 2009. Estimated figures for 2009 showed that 6.48 million travellers visited Indonesia, compared to 6.43 million a year earlier. Definitive figures will only be available by the end of January. Looking however at results for the first 11 months of 2009, remarkable growth rates were achieved in markets such as France (up by 29.7%), Australia (up by 28.1%), the Middle-East (up by 23.5%), China (up by 19.6%) and Holland (up by 6.3%). The UK and Malaysia managed to record also a modest growth for the first eleven months of 2009. Worst performing markets during the same period of 2009 were South Korea, Japan and Germany due mainly to the economic recession.
Indonesia’s biggest incoming markets for 2009 remain Singapore and Malaysia with a respective market share of 14% and 11.5% followed by Australia –which took over Japan- with a market share of 8.2% and Japan with 7.1% market share. All together, Europe represented 10.5% of total arrivals from January to November 2009.
Bali remained a top performer in terms of international arrivals. Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar recorded 2.16 million foreign arrivals from January to November 2009, up by 13.6% over the same period of 2008. However, entry points with the highest growth in international arrivals were international airports in Makassar (+219%), in Padang (+43%), in Manado (+41%) and Medan (+16.3%). Jakarta Soekarno Hatta Airport saw total international arrivals dropping by 4.2% over the same period while the total number of international travellers to Batam Island –near Singapore- declined by almost 11%.
For 2010, The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is confident to reach the mark of seven million international arrivals. | 
