A regional government chief wants to restrict encounters with Indonesia’s iconic Komodo Dragons to only ‘prestige’ tourists with suitably deep pockets.
The governor of East Nusa Tenggara has bizarrely proposed to hike the entrance free to an eye-watering $500 per visitor.
That would represent an increase of about 50 times compared with the current fee.
Governor Viktor Bungtilu Laiskodat made the suggestion during a speech this week.
"(Komodo dragons) are very unique, but sadly they come cheap. Those who don’t have the money shouldn’t visit the park since it specifically caters to extraordinary people," he said.
Laiskodat says the local economy sees very little benefit from the surging tourism numbers.
The lizard is found on just four small islands and a small area of the Flores mainland in central Indonesia.
Authorities have been recently mulling ways to reduce the numbers of travellers entering the Komodo National Park, especially the increasing number of larger cruise ships and liveaboard yachts bringing scuba divers.
A price hike of this magnitude would certainly do the trick.
However, the suggestion has arguably little chance of becoming reality.
The Komodo National Park is administered by a government agency, and as Komodo is part of one of the Indonesian government’s ’10 New Bali’s’ with fast-track tourism development status, it will not want to price itself out of mass market appeal.
Laiskodat called for talks with the government over pricing and managing tourist flows at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
