Doubt is being cast over the fairness in choosing the new seven wonders of the world as the organiser's costly requirements to win the slots meant that only natural places in countries that can afford the expenses are more likely to win the highly commercialized global contest.

Telegraph online travel news editor Olive Smith revealed that tourism authorities in Indonesia, which campaigned for Komodo Island to be included in the final list of the New Seven Wonders of Nature announced on Nov. 11, claimed that the organiser requested for $10 million in licensing and sponsorship fees, and $35 million to cover a tour of the island by foundation officials.

The government-funded Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPC), which campaigned for the inclusion of the Maldives in the list of 28 finalists to the New Seven Wonders of Nature search, claimed that the foundation had asked for the same amount of sponsorship and tour fee.

he campaigners for Komodo and Maldives islands have pulled out from the contest due to the hidden costs, though the Indonesian island inhabited by Komodo dragons remained on the list of seven new wonders of nature together with Ha Long Bay of Vietnam, Iguazu Falls of Brazil, Jeju Island of South Korea, the Amazon jungle of South America, the underground river in Puerto Princesa, Palawan in the Philippines, and the Table Mountain of South Africa.

Simon Hawkins, director of the MMPC, also claimed that the SMS voting system used by N7W to choose the seven finalists allowed people to vote multiple times.

The organiser, the non-profit Swiss corporation New7Wonders Foundation (N7W), denied the claims. Eamonn Fitzgerald, a spokesman for N7W, said there were no hidden fees and the SMS voting system was the same as the format used in television shows like The X-Factor.

Fitzgerald admitted that a proportion of the charges on text messaging went to the New Open World Corporation (NOWC), which receives fees for registering entries to the N7W contest and fees for licensing the winning place as one of the new seven wonders of nature.

In October, Toronto-based former journalist and business analyst Red Hunt revealed in his blog that NOWC has requested campaigners to pay $350,000 platinum level licensing fee or $210,000 golden level licensing fee, $1 million licensing fee to put the New Seven Wonders of Nature logo on planes, $1 million licensing fee for a telecommunications carrier to conduct the SMS voting in respective countries, and $500,000 for the tour.

Hunt also questioned why the N7W has no physical location or mailing address and a Panama office is the one that accepted applications for inclusion in the list.

The Underground River of Puerto Princesa is the longest underground river in the world.