Rapa Nui to World: ‘We Don’t Want to Become an Archaeological Theme Park’
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 01.10.07 | 8:55 AM ET
Should Rapa Nui restore more of its iconic and mysterious stone statues? They’re a big reason Rapa Nui has become a hot spot for travelers, and “commercial and political interests, as well as some archaeologists, would like nothing better than to restore more—or perhaps eventually all—of the moai, as the statues are known,” writes Larry Rohter in the New York Times. “But many residents of Rapa Nui, the Polynesian name for Easter Island that is favored here, regard that possibility with a mixture of suspicion and dread.”
Why? Rohter writes:
Many of the island’s 3,800 residents argue that the moai already restored are sufficient to ensure a constant flow of tourists, the island’s main source of income. Tourism here zoomed to more than 45,000 visitors in 2005 from 6,000 in 1990 as airline flights have increased, but the influx is viewed as a mixed blessing because it has resulted in strains on public services and natural resources.
To restore even more statues, local critics argue, would only divert scarce resources from other scientific work that could reveal more about the culture that existed here for 1,000 years before the Dutch landed on Easter Sunday of 1722.
The number of travelers to Rapa Nui, however, promises to grow in the next few years, and many of them will be lodging in style. Jayne Clark reports in USA Today:
The first upscale lodging will open in 2008, operated by the hotel company Explora, which has built two well-received eco lodges in Chile’s Patagonia and Atacama Desert regions. The Santiago-based company has partnered with local dive-shop owner Mike Rapu, who owns the land. (Only Rapanui can possess land.) With the first major venture of its kind on the horizon, some locals are concerned third-party ownerships will bring a flood of development. Another hotel, the 90-room Hanga Roa, will undergo a major renovation this year with outside investment.
A slideshow accompanies Clark’s story.
Photo: Fulorian, via Flickr. (Creative Commons License.)
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
