Charlie Lynn

Lynn, who is about to lead his 101st expedition across the Kokoda Trail, said: “The decline in management started after Australian Government officials shifted responsibility for the management of the Kokoda Trail from PNG Tourism to the PNG Conservation Environment Protection Authority (CEPA).

“Since then, the Trail has been managed as a socio-environment resource rather than as a tourism enterprise,” said the Kokoda tour operator.

“When it was managed by PNG Tourism, trekker numbers increased dramatically by 1,440 percent from 365 per year in 2002 to 5,621 in 2008.

British citizen Mattew Iovane and American Michelle Clemens, both 31, told a London-based newspaper, The Sun of their Kokoda ordeal.    

On Wednesday January 13, The Sun newspaper ran the tourist account on its front page with the headline, “Kidnapped by cannibals: Brit and girlfriend stripped, beaten and tortured by Papua New Guinea tribe.”     

Lynn said the duo came unprepared to walk the trail and their account of the Kokoda incident is smokescreen to sell for money.