Tourists encountered fee hikes to visit the rock hewn churches of Lalibela, in Ethiopia. Fees which used to be birr 350 gone up by well over 100 percent. Addis Fortune reported that tourists were required to pay 961 Ethiopian birr ( which is the equivalent of $53 ) to visit churches in the town of Lalibela in north western Ethiopia.
Those who are in charge of the churches are said to have supported fee hike while others whose livelihood is directly related to tourism industry are opposing the incridible hike. It is indicated that student travellers from Europe who wanted to visit the churches were unable visit the churches because of the price hike and complained about it. The report does not indicate if similar fee hikes were made in other tourist attraction sites in Ethiopia.
Obviously, unexpected and incridebly insane increase like these one is not going to attract more tourists.
To read Fortun’s report click here