The entrance fee to the Oluanpi Lighthouse National Park in Kenting (墾丁) is to be increased starting on Friday to ease the pressure from large tourist groups.
Regular admission to the park in Pingtung County is to be raised from NT$40 to NT$60 and discounted tickets are to be increased from NT$20 to NT$30, the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency said yesterday.
Another popular tourist destination in the Kenting area, Maobitou Park, which can be visited for free, is to start charging visitors for entry to the park starting on May 1.
Adult tickets are to be priced at NT$30 while discounted tickets are to cost NT$15.
There would also be new regulations for visits to Longkeng (龍坑) and Nanrenshan (南仁山) ecological reserve areas in Kenting National Park.
Beginning on March 1, visitors are to tour the reserves in groups of 15 led by a qualified guide and pay for the guide’s services.
Tourists interested in visiting the ecological reserve sites are encouraged to register on the Kenting National Park Headquarters’ Web site prior to their visit to reserve a place in a tour group, office director Liu Pei-tung (劉培東) said.
Currently, visitors need to register to be admitted to Longkeng and Nanrenshan, but they are allowed to roam the areas on their own without being accompanied by a guide.
The limit on the number of visitors to Nanrenshan is to remain at 400 people per day, and visitors to Longkeng are to be limited to 150 people in the morning and another 150 people in the afternoon.
During the morning and afternoon admittance hours, no more than 50 foreign tourists would be allowed into the area to make sure that local tourists have a chance to reserve a spot on a tour group to visit the premises.
In related news, Yushan National Park in central Taiwan is to be closed to hikers for a month from Friday to Jan. 31.
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