About the Bunaken Island guide

By Bunaken Island Editorial Desk

The Bunaken Island guide is an English-language travel guide with a request desk, published under Juara Holding Group and written by its Editorial Desk. It is not the park's website. Factual claims carry a named source, disagreements between sources stay visible, and the desk has a commercial interest, which this page explains in plain terms.

What is the Bunaken Island guide?

It is a reference for people deciding whether and how to visit Bunaken Island and the national park around it. The subjects are the walls and reefs, access from Manado, places to stay, and conservation. Geographically the guide starts with the island itself, which Indonesia's tourism ministry site gives as 8.08 km2 in the Bay of Manado, then widens to the park. Wikipedia counts five islands in the park. Wikivoyage adds Nain Kecil to the list, and that small difference is the sort of thing we leave visible.

This site is a guide. It does not act as a resort, dive centre, tour operator, airline or government body, and it does not own or run boats, rooms, tours or schedules, and it holds no stock of any kind. When a page describes a boat or a resort, it is describing someone else's business from what that business or another named source has published. Readers in a hurry can start with the Bunaken FAQ.

Who writes it?

Pages carry a single byline, the Bunaken Island Editorial Desk, and do not name individual authors. The desk works under Juara Holding Group.

You should know what kind of writing this is. It is desk work, built from published sources. No page reports a dive, a crossing or a night in a room as something we experienced, and you will not find first-person impressions of a reef here. That limits the guide. It cannot tell you how a particular resort felt last month, and a recent guest or the operator can. In return, factual claims carry a named source you can open and judge for yourself. Planning advice is our own judgement.

How do we choose sources?

We prefer the source closest to the fact, and we say what kind of source it is. Different kinds are good for different questions.

A few working rules follow from that table:

• Operator claims are named. If a resort says turtle encounters are frequent at a site, the sentence says which resort said it. We do not restate it as settled fact.
• A single report stays a single report. One traveller's or one publisher's account is not turned into a general statement.
• Old information is treated as old. A paper on the park's co-management, dating from around 2002, says a decentralised fee system set aside 80% of revenue for management programmes. That is useful history, and we do not present it as today's arrangement.
• Praise is reported as praise. The Equator Initiative holds up the park's advisory board as a landmark case of local co-management, paid for through a user fee that supports patrols and community projects. "Landmark" is their word.
• No rankings without a named basis. We publish no ratings, league tables or best-of lists of our own, because we have no neutral measure to rank on.

What do we do when sources disagree?

We show the disagreement. A reader about to spend money is better served by knowing a figure is contested than by a clean number that happens to be wrong. Some examples from this guide:

• Park area. Bunaken was designated a national park on 15 October 1991 at 89,065 ha. A 2014 forestry decree set the area at 73,983.29 ha, and the park booking portal gives the same figure, while the conservation directorate's own profile header shows 73,941.78 ha. Many guides still quote about 89,000 ha, the 1991 number. The national park page sets this out.
• World Heritage status. The park has been on UNESCO's Tentative List since Indonesia's submission of 7 February 2005. Tentative is the operative word, so the guide never calls it a World Heritage Site, whatever other pages say.
• Entry fee basis. The portal and a national tariff table describe the foreign visitor charge differently, one per visit and one per day. The entrance fee page gives both and does not choose for you.

Where one source is clearly better placed to know, we say which and why. Where that is not clear, both views stay on the page. We also do not merge figures from two sources into one tidy range, because the result would be a claim nobody actually made.

Some questions have no reliable answer at all, and then we say so. Current annual visitor numbers are one example, since the figures we can cite stop in 2006.

What is our commercial interest?

A request sent through the desk can end in a paid booking, and that gives us a commercial interest in what you decide. You should weigh what you read here with that in mind, and it is the reason we want you able to check our sources without us.

In practice this means several things. Before you agree to anything, you receive a written offer that states any fee, the price and the company contracting with you. The site is not a party to that contract. A message from the desk is an answer to a question, and only a written offer binds. Naming a resort or agent in a guide page is neither a recommendation nor a ranking.

Published figures on some pages come from official pages or public third-party listings, each with its source and the date. They are not our prices. The full terms are in the disclaimer.

Is this the park's official site?

No. Bunaken National Park sits within Indonesia's national park system under the forestry ministry. The conservation directorate's park profile and the park booking portal are the places to go for official statements, tickets and rule changes. Having the island's name in our domain gives this site no authority over the park. If our page and an official notice differ, follow the official notice and tell us about the difference.

How can you correct something on this site?

Corrections help, particularly from operators and people on the island. A useful one gives the page address, the sentence in question and a link to a published source that says otherwise. Operators correcting their own details should write from a business address and link to the page where the current information appears. We apply the same rules to corrections as to everything else, so a correction may appear as an attributed statement beside the original rather than replacing it.

What do readers ask about this guide?

Who runs the Bunaken Island guide?

Juara Holding Group publishes it, and a request desk sits alongside it. It is a travel guide and request service, and it does not act as a resort, dive shop, tour company or government office.

Who writes the Bunaken Island guide?

The Bunaken Island Editorial Desk writes every page. Pages carry that shared byline and do not name individual authors. The content is built from published sources and does not report first-hand visits.

How are Bunaken facts checked?

Factual claims carry a named source and the kind of source it is, such as a government page, an operator or a community guide. Planning advice is our own judgement. Where sources conflict, the page says so and gives both. Fees and schedules change, so check with the provider before you pay.

Is the Bunaken Island guide run by the park?

No. The park belongs to Indonesia's national park system under the forestry ministry, and this guide has no official role there. It cannot issue tickets or permits, and it cannot speak for park staff.

Where does the Bunaken Island guide get its information?

From Indonesian government pages, UNESCO, academic and press reports, Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, travel publishers, travel blogs, and operators speaking about their own businesses. Each page lists its sources near the end so you can read them yourself.

Which sources support this page?

• Indonesia tourism ministry: Manado and Bunaken
• Wikipedia: Bunaken National Park
• The Bunaken co-management paper (PDF)
• Equator Initiative: Bunaken National Park Management Advisory Board
• Conservation directorate (KSDAE): Bunaken park profile
• Park booking portal: Bunaken National Park
• UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List: Bunaken National Park

How do I reach the desk?

For questions, source corrections or trip requests, write on WhatsApp +62 811-3941-4563 or to bd@juaraholding.com. The contact page explains what to include in a message and what not to send.