Indonesia's Komodo Island to limit tourist visits

Source: Xinhua | 2020-08-06

Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province's administration will limit the number of visitors to Komodo Island to 50,000 people per year as part of efforts to conserve the Komodo dragons, the world's largest living lizards which only occur in eastern Indonesia.

"Komodo Island is to be set as a conservation island. We will limit the number of visitors, not to be more than 50,000 people per year," the province's governor Viktor Laiskodat was quoted by state news agency Antara as saying on Wednesday.

In July last year, President Joko Widodo said during his visit to the province's tourist resort of Labuan Bajo that there should be a visitor limit on the island, where more than 170,000 holiday makers visited the national park in 2018.

According to government data, more than 2,800 Komodo dragons currently live in the Komodo National Park.