M

entawai Islands regency in West Sumatra is looking to enjoy additional revenue from incoming tourists who spend time surfing at popular destinations.

The regency administration said it had faced only minor challenges since imposing the new policy of charging surfers for enjoying the waves at popular spots since Aug. 1.

The regency’s tourism, youth and sports agency head Desti Seminora said the regency had collected
Rp 754 million (US$57,304) from charging surfers at tourist sites in the regency, as of Sept. 14.

“The money was collected from 754 foreign surfers. Each is charged Rp 1 million for 15 days’ surfing in the regency,” Desti told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

Desti was confident that the amount would continue to increase considering that the surfing season would last until November. Therefore, she was optimistic the regency could meet its target of collecting Rp 2 billion in fees from foreign surfers this year.

Desti acknowledged the policy implementation was far from ideal given some adequacies along the way. For example, the regency had only two surveillance posts, while in fact it requires four posts.

It also lacked booths and was in need of more officers to collect the money from surfers.

“But we have to start it and will improve it next year,” Desti said.

Surfers who had paid the fees were given rubber bands to wear to differentiate themselves from those who had not paid. The tourism office said it had received reports of some foreign surfers who were not wearing the rubber bands.

When the foreign tourists were summoned and told to pay surfing fees, they said they did not know that they had to pay, with some arguing that they had booked their travel last year without fees being imposed.

“For such cases we still tolerate the surfers by letting them continue surfing and requiring them to pay after finishing,” said Desti, adding that it might not be their mistake.

She said staff members would still ask them to pay the fees, to avoid causing issues with surfers who had paid.

Despite the legal fees for surfing, some tour agents were also forced to pay Rp 300,000 to Rp 500,000 in illegal levies to local community figures. The local administration promised to ban such illegal charges by recruiting those community figures to become employees.

“Such levies have been there since a long time ago due to poverty. In the future we will make them work for the surveillance posts,” she said.

Other challenges, according to Desti, included the fact that many resort owners or surfing boat operators had not informed their customers about the new policy although they had been told about it months before.

Association of West Sumatra Surfing Tourist Ships (AKSSB) chairman Aim Zen said his organization and its members fully supported the regency administration in its effort to earn an income from the surfing business.

“But we also ask the regency administration to respect the tourists and operators by ensuring there will be no more illegal levies. The regency needs also to improve services and cleanliness in the surfing locations,” Aim told the Post.