Wakatobi Dive Resort
A Sulawesi dive resort that pays surrounding villages not to fish its reef.
Wakatobi stands on Onemobaa Island in south-east Sulawesi, Indonesia, reached by the resort's own charter flight from Bali to a private airstrip. The island carries the resort and a local village community, which is why this register records it at P2 rather than P4 — the property does not hold the island alone and has never claimed to.
Around thirty rooms and villas make up the accommodation. The property's defining arrangement is a collaborative reef reserve: it pays surrounding villages an annual lease not to fish designated reef, a scheme running since 1996 that now covers a substantial stretch of coast and is enforced by patrols the resort funds. The house reef is regularly described by divers as the best in the world.
Paying communities rather than excluding them. The lease model was unusual when it began and has since been copied; it is the single most consequential idea in this entry.
A house reef reachable from the jetty. Divers enter from the beach onto a wall that would elsewhere require a boat, which is why guests return year after year.
Who it is not for
Wakatobi is wrong for non-divers, since the reef is the entire proposition and there is little else. It is wrong for guests expecting the island to themselves. And it is wrong for travellers who need flexible dates, as the charter flight runs on a fixed schedule. Those wanting Indonesian diving with a resort behind it should look at Bawah Reserve.
Sources
- wakatobi.com — around thirty rooms and villas, Onemobaa Island, collaborative reef reserve since 1996
- Room count, lease arrangements and reserve area unverified. Confirm before publication.
Booking
Private Island Resorts arranges each stay on request, quoting the rates available for the island and dates. No benefit should be assumed unless it is confirmed in writing for the individual reservation.
Request a proposal