JakartaPost-June 11
The Magelang administration in Central Java has asked the central government to raise the daily visitor cap at Borobudur Temple to 10,000, a move that would challenge ongoing efforts to preserve the ancient site’s structure. Magelang Regent Grengseng Pamuji said local sellers and vendors in the Borobudur area have been struggling to stay afloat since the government limited the number of daily visitors to the Buddhist monument to 1,200 people in 2023 for temple preservation. “The visitor limit has drastically reduced money circulation in Borobudur. Almost all vendors have been complaining of a lack of customers,” he stated on Monday, as quoted by Kompas. “We urge the government to consider raising the daily visitor limit in Borobudur to 10,000 people,” he added. Arif Rafman Hakim, Head of the Tourism Industry Division of Magelang’s Tourism, Youth and Sport Agency, said that Regent Grengseng has formally requested the visitor limit increase from Culture Minister Fadli Zon during the Waisak ceremony at Borobudur in May. The state tourism firm Injourney, which manages Borobudur Temple, stated last month that it plans to raise the daily visitor limit for the site to 5,000 people. Local businesses at Borobudur have long called for the government to revoke the daily visitor limit at the popular tourist site, citing that their revenue declined up to 80 percent since the restriction was implemented. UNESCO regards Borobudur as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world and designated it as a World Heritage Site in 1991. In 2023, authorities stated that constant foot traffic from tourists had worn down the temple’s stone stairs, with indentations reaching up to 5 cm deep in some areas. They also reported that many visitors committed vandalism, causing further damage to the temple. Before the implementation of the visitor limit policy, authorities estimated that up to 27,000 people could climb the temple during peak season. Following the finding, the government decided to limit the number of visitors allowed to climb Borobudur to 150 people per hour, while imposing no limit on the number of visitors who can enter the temple’s courtyard at any given time. Meanwhile, tickets to climb the temple cost Rp 120,000 for domestic tourists and Rp 455,000 for foreign visitors. The Borobudur Conservation Center stated that this daily visitor cap aims to transform the temple from a mass tourism site into a “meaningful tourism” destination. Read more at:
