Easter Island card climbdown
12th October 2009
Easter Island’s Rapa Nui people have reacted with dismay to a Chilean court ruling overturning compulsory visitor cards for travellers
Easter Island’s Rapa Nui people have reacted with dismay to a Chilean court ruling overturning compulsory visitor cards for travellers.
Authorities on the Pacific island had introduced the Tarjeta Especial de Visitante (TEV) in September, in an attempt to monitor the number and behaviour of visitors.
However, the Chilean government has ruled that it violates the country’s constitutional right to freedom of movement.
Visitor numbers to the island have risen from 14,000 in the mid-1990s to 70,000 last year. This has caused alarm among the locals, who claim they are being overrun by travellers and migrant workers from the mainland.
There has also been a string of incidents involving vandalism of the island’s famed Moai statues. Last year, a Finnish man was fined for hacking off a piece of one of the statues’ ears as a souvenir.
The launch of the TEV followed the successful introduction of a similar card in the Galápagos Islands. It’s likely the card will still be given to visitors but there will be no obligation to fill it in.
There are also plans to follow the Galápagos Islands in raising the cost of admission to the island’s national park. Reports say the entry fee could rise from US$10 (£6) to US$60 (£38).
Reports say many islanders would like visitor numbers capped at 50,000 per year.
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