Sustainable Development in LombokHow the Master Plan Protects What Makes the Island Special
Lombok has something that Bali no longer has: the opportunity to get development right from the beginning. The Integrated Tourism Master Plan is one of the few national tourism masterplans in Asia that builds explicit environmental limits, community benefit requirements, and cultural preservation into its legal framework before the surge in demand, not after it.
For investors and buyers with a long-term horizon, this matters enormously. It is the difference between a destination that maintains its premium positioning for decades and one that competes on price once its natural and cultural assets are degraded. Both the World Bank and the Government of Indonesia have been explicit: the goal is not to become Bali. It is to become what Bali should have been.
Hard Carrying Capacity Limits
The AECOM ITMP sets annual tourism carrying capacity ceilings across all four Key Tourism Areas — hard limits that no planning approval can exceed:
The government's 12 million visitor target for 2045 is set at 76% of total island capacity — deliberately designed to avoid over-tourism at every zone level. This is not planning caution. It is asset protection. By permanently limiting visitor volumes below the carrying threshold, the plan ensures that the natural and cultural assets that drive visitor demand — and property values — are preserved indefinitely.
Total island carrying capacity ceiling (visitors per year)
2045 target as a percentage of total capacity — a permanent safety margin
Source: AECOM Integrated Tourism Master Plan for Lombok, prepared for Government of Indonesia (BPIW / Kementerian PUPR), 2020
Environmental Protection in Priority Zones
The Rinjani Global Geopark is formally protected under the ITMP, with strict development controls and a mandate to revitalise the environmental quality that the Gili Islands lost through years of uncontrolled growth. The AECOM ITMP includes specific funded programmes for:
Wastewater Treatment Plants
Wastewater treatment plants on all three Gili Islands — Trawangan (350 m³/day, five zones), Gili Meno (150 m³/day), and Gili Air (100 m³/day) — replacing the current situation where untreated waste was documented by the World Bank as reaching ocean waters.
Solid Waste Management
Solid waste management upgrades across all tourism sub-districts, with the Mandalika ITDC committing to a zero-waste concept for the entire SEZ — composting organic waste, recycling what can be recovered, and eliminating open dumping.
Water Supply Upgrades
Water supply upgrades specifically designed to remove the desalination dependency that has been exploiting the marine environment around the Gili Islands.
The World Bank MADA documented the baseline environmental situation candidly: TripAdvisor reviews of Selong Belanak Beach included complaints about ‘raw sewage in ocean,’ and reviewers of Tanjung Aan and Pink Beach consistently mentioned cleanliness as a dissatisfaction driver alongside high levels of satisfaction with the physical beach quality. The infrastructure programme addresses these issues directly.
Source: World Bank MADA, Horwath HTL, 2016; AECOM ITMP, Government of Indonesia, 2020
Land Use: Protecting What Cannot Be Replaced
One of the most distinctive features of the ITMP is its formal designation of a protected agricultural belt across the central island — the LP2B (Sustainable Agricultural and Food Land) zone — which cannot be converted to tourism or resort use. This is not merely environmental protection. It is a supply chain strategy.
Lombok's agricultural sector produces the fresh produce, seafood, rice, and local ingredients that a world-class resort economy requires. By protecting the central island's farmland from development, the ITMP ensures that the food supply chain remains local, reducing import costs for hotel operators and keeping economic value within the island's communities rather than exporting it to commodity suppliers.
The AECOM ITMP also applies strict land-use zoning across all KTAs — low-rise, low-density boutique development in sensitive coastal areas; higher-density mixed commercial within the Mandalika KEK boundary. This is the planning structure that Horwath HTL specifically recommended in 2016 and that was absent in Bali's development.
Source: World Bank MADA, Horwath HTL, 2016; AECOM ITMP, Government of Indonesia, 2020
Community Benefit: Built Into the Framework
Both the World Bank MADA and the AECOM ITMP identify local community benefit as a requirement, not an afterthought. The ITMP builds community workforce development into every development phase, through:
Vocational Tourism Polytechnic
The Vocational Tourism Polytechnic (Poltekpar) in Mataram and Lombok Tengah — a Ministry of Tourism-funded institution established in mid-2016 specifically to build the hospitality workforce that international resort development requires. Horwath HTL documented it in its skills assessment as a critical intervention given the island's limited trained hospitality workforce.
Pokdarwis Framework
The Pokdarwis (Tourism Awareness Group) framework — community-led organisations in each tourism area that manage local participation in tourism, environmental protection, and cultural preservation. The ITMP formalises their role and provides government support.
Sasak Cultural Corridor
The Sasak cultural corridor — Desa Sade and Desa Ende, the traditional Sasak villages adjacent to the Mandalika zone, are designated as formal tourism assets in the ITMP, with development investment to support visitor access, cultural presentation, and economic benefit to village communities.
Horwath HTL's investor sentiment analysis in 2016 recommended that ‘investors should be encouraged to prioritize the local workforce over imported labour, to help build communities.’ The ITMP embeds this as a planning requirement — creating a stable, supported local community around every tourism development and reducing the social friction risk that has affected resort investments in comparable regional markets.
Source: World Bank MADA, Horwath HTL, 2016; AECOM ITMP, Government of Indonesia, 2020
Kinnara Capital's Approach
Kinnara Capital's development philosophy is aligned with the ITMP's sustainability framework. We operate within the government's planning boundaries, within the designated priority zones, and with an explicit commitment to the community benefit and environmental standards that the master plan requires. Saraya Resort is designed for the long-term value of the destination, not for short-term returns that degrade the assets that make it valuable.
Learn About Saraya Resort
Saraya Resort is developed within Lombok's sustainability framework — designed for long-term value, not short-term returns.