NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Travel

Here there be dragons. But can they survive an invasion of tourists?

By Hannah Beech
New York Times·
14 Aug, 2019 06:00 AM7 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Komodo dragons are lizards native only to a scattering of islands in Indonesia. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

Komodo dragons are lizards native only to a scattering of islands in Indonesia. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

The Komodo dragon, a 3 metre lizard native only to a scattering of islands in Indonesia, flicked its forked tongue. Two boys were standing nearby, the perfect size for dragon snacks.

A local guide shrugged at their unease and urged them closer to the reptile.

Komodo dragons resemble dinosaurs that missed their cue for extinction. Capable of smelling blood from miles away, they eat water buffaloes, deer and one another. Their saliva is laced with venom. Females are unsentimental enough to devour their own freshly hatched offspring.

Fatal attacks on humans are exceedingly rare, though they do happen. But the oversize lizard lounging near the two young tourists had just gorged on chicken and goat and was lolling in the kind of digestive stupor Americans might experience after Thanksgiving.

It was safe, the guide promised, for a family photograph with the alpha predator, one of only about 3,000 dragons left in the world.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
A Komodo dragon on Komodo Island. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
A Komodo dragon on Komodo Island. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

Tourists come to Komodo National Park, which stretches across a volcanic explosion of islands in the southern Pacific Ocean, because of the dragons and also for the vibrant sea life that lets snorkelers and scuba divers share the water with turtles and rays.

But like other tourist destinations around the world, from Venice to the Galápagos, the park is at risk of being wrecked by its own popularity. The inundation of tourists is threatening the very animals and pristine beauty drawing them there.

While Komodo tourism generates significant cash for one of Indonesia's poorest regions, it has also brought piles of trash, human encroachment and occasional lizard smuggling.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Some environmentalists worry that the stampede of visitors has set the ecosystem off kilter. Dragons, they say, should survive on wild deer and pigs, not chickens and goats tossed from the back of a truck by a ranger.

Tourists hiking on Padar Island, in Komodo National Park. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
Tourists hiking on Padar Island, in Komodo National Park. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

Overall, the number of foreign tourists who visited the entire national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, has doubled since 2015, and the number of domestic visitors has increased fivefold. The park is now on the cruise ship circuit, with thousands of people disembarking each day.

Discover more

Travel

Ethical elephants in Thailand

29 Jul 09:00 PM
Travel

Overcrowded and more dangerous, Mont Blanc faces a crisis

29 Jul 07:00 AM
Travel

Hotel mini shampoos are the new plastic straws

02 Aug 11:45 PM
Travel

Cruise ship fails sanitation inspection spectacularly

14 Aug 10:37 PM

Concerned about the onslaught of visitors in this far-flung part of Indonesia, provincial leaders want to close the island of Komodo, where the largest population of dragons lives — and where the cruise ships dock — in January 2020. The island would be off-limits for at least a year.

Forgoing all that tourist revenue is no easy call for such a poor region, but officials say it is essential for the park's future.

"If we don't give the dragons their habitat, they will be extinct within the next 50 to 100 years," said Yosef Nae Soi, the deputy governor of East Nusa Tenggara province, which includes the islands that make up Komodo National Park.

Tourists come to Komodo National Park because of the dragons but also for the vibrant sea life. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
Tourists come to Komodo National Park because of the dragons but also for the vibrant sea life. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

But the plan may be thwarted by the Indonesian national government, which will make a final decision this year, officials from the national Ministry of Environment and Forestry say.

And even as local officials aim to close the island of Komodo, the national government has unveiled a plan to create 10 "new Balis" across the archipelago nation. It hopes to mimic the success of Indonesia's most famous holiday isle, which faces its own severe overtourism.

"Indonesia needs to diversify its tourism destinations," said Guntur Sakti, a spokesman for the national Ministry of Tourism.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

One of the 10 new Balis is Labuan Bajo, a scruffy port town on the nearby island of Flores that is the gateway to Komodo National Park.

Sharing a swim together in Komodo National Park. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
Sharing a swim together in Komodo National Park. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

So far, the town's main pier is still mostly occupied with local commerce. Boy stevedores heft bags of instant noodles and dried fish onto wooden boats. Glimmering fish dart past, and children take turns pushing one another off the dock.

But Labuan Bajo is being transformed, its once picturesque bay now a giant construction site, as the half-finished hulks of luxury hotels destined for dragon-spotters and divers rise in front of primordial jungle. The smell of wet concrete and construction dust mixes with the aroma of clove cigarettes and fried bananas.

Plastic bags float in the clear water, like mutant jellyfish.

"It's changing, and that's good for people like me," said Sirilus Harmin, a guide who left his mountain home for new opportunities in Komodo National Park.

A shopping mall next to Kuta beach in Bali. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
A shopping mall next to Kuta beach in Bali. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

Working as the guides who lead walks in the dragon habitat, or operating souvenir stalls, are two of the few options the locals now have to get by since their traditional fishing and hunting ways were curtailed when the national park was formed in 1980.

But most of the $300 million in tourism dollars spent in the region does not reach locals, said Shana Fatina, director of the tourism authority board for Labuan Bajo, which is trying to make sure more of the spending flows into the pockets of those who live in the region.

"We don't want the communities to just be an accessory, we want them to be the main focus," Shana said. "We want to educate the public that going to Komodo National Park is not like going to an amusement park."

The construction site of a new hotel, marina and commercial development in the harbor in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
The construction site of a new hotel, marina and commercial development in the harbor in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

The Himalayan nation of Bhutan has avoided some of the ills of mass tourism by imposing high daily spending minimums, an effective if elitist solution that ensures that only the wealthy can experience the country's charms. Some provincial officials in Komodo think that the price of meeting the world's largest lizard should be increased to at least $500, up from the approximately $10 admission charge to the park today.

"Komodo has to have its prestige," said Yosef, the deputy governor. "This is the only place in the world with Komodo dragons, so don't sell them cheap."

Playing chess in front of a mosque in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
Playing chess in front of a mosque in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

And if Bhutan offers one possible approach on controlling, and rarefying, crowds, another Asian country has already experimented with barring all visitors to a popular site of natural beauty. The early results are promising.

Last year in Thailand, tourism authorities closed off Maya Bay, a cliff-ringed beach that gained fame as the site of the Leonardo DiCaprio film, "The Beach." Much of the Technicolor coral reef had been destroyed by the thousands of tourists who descended each day.

Already, sharks have returned to Maya Bay, and coral is regenerating, Thai park officials say. The marine reserve will be closed for up to five years.

At the construction site of a new marina, hotel and commercial development in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
At the construction site of a new marina, hotel and commercial development in Labuan Bajo. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

If the island of Komodo is closed, the decision will affect not just the humans who wish to visit but also the humans who have lived among the dragons for centuries. They should be relocated, local authorities say.

Legend holds that these villagers — about 1,700 live on the island today — share the same ancestors as the dragons. Residents say the reptiles do not bother them much because of this ancient bond.

But Yosef seems unsympathetic to the human inhabitants of Komodo. "Komodo Island is for the Komodo dragon," he said. "The Komodo need a spacious place to live where there are no humans."

A shopping street next to Kuta beach in Bali. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times
A shopping street next to Kuta beach in Bali. Photo / Adam Dean, The New York Times

And if people refuse to leave the island that has been their home for generations?

"If we have warned them and they do not listen, it's their own fault if the Komodo eat them," Yosef said. "It is our offering to the Komodo."


Written by: Hannah Beech

Photographs by: Adam Dean

© 2019 THE NEW YORK TIMES

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Travel

Travel

Why depachikas in Japan are the best place to enjoy the foodie scene

06 Jul 02:00 AM
Travel

How to spend a Dunedin weekend with your university-aged kid 

06 Jul 01:00 AM
Travel

3 Places to craft your very own gin in New Zealand

05 Jul 07:00 PM

One pass, ten snowy adventures

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Travel

Why depachikas in Japan are the best place to enjoy the foodie scene

Why depachikas in Japan are the best place to enjoy the foodie scene

06 Jul 02:00 AM

Skip the fancy restaurants; these halls are the perfect place to dive into Japan’s food.

How to spend a Dunedin weekend with your university-aged kid 

How to spend a Dunedin weekend with your university-aged kid 

06 Jul 01:00 AM
3 Places to craft your very own gin in New Zealand

3 Places to craft your very own gin in New Zealand

05 Jul 07:00 PM
'Covered with bites': Auckland hostel issued cleansing order for bedbugs

'Covered with bites': Auckland hostel issued cleansing order for bedbugs

04 Jul 05:00 PM
Your Fiordland experience, levelled up
sponsored

Your Fiordland experience, levelled up

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP