Beach Hollywood helped make famous gets time out from tourism
Once a pristine Thai paradise, the secluded bay made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach has been exhausted by mass tourism. It’s now getting a break from the daily influx of dozens of boats and thousands of visitors unsuccessfully scrambling for an unspoiled view of glistening white sands and emerald waters.
Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh Island in the Andaman Sea will close to tourists for four months from today to give its coral reefs and sea life a chance to recover from an onslaught that began nearly two decades ago. Thai authorities, who have promoted unfettered tourism but now claim to be striving to balance profit and conservation, say the closure will happen every year.
It’s part of a rethink happening globally about unrestricted tourism that brings big dollars but damages historic sites, harms the environment and often alienates locals. Last month, the Philippines began a six-month closure of popular Boracay Island, whose waters President Rodrigo Duterte described as a “cesspool”. Venice, the famed Italian lagoon city that lives off tourism, installed gates at two access bridges during a fourday holiday in April so it could turn back visitors.
Many of Thailand’s marine national parks are closed from midMay to mid-October during the monsoon season but because of Maya Bay’s popularity, it hasn’t had a break since a Hollywood crew set foot on its sands in 1999 to film the dark backpacker tale based on a novel by Alex Garland. Its corals have been deci- mated by the suffocating clouds of sand and sediment churned up by speedboats.
“I tried to push this campaign for many many years, but you know in Thailand we are a tourism industry country and we need a lot of money, so before not so many people listened,” said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a marine biologist and member of a government committee on development and the environment. “It should have been done 10 years ago but at least it has been done,” he said.
Thailand had about 35 million international visitors last year, a fivefold increase in little more than two decades.
Shi Pengfei, from China, was among the last tourists to visit Maya Bay before its closure, and said the area needs “a chance to recover”.
But locals aren’t entirely happy. The head of Phi Phi Tourist Business Association, Watrapol Jantharo, said locals felt the Government could have done a better job of informing them of its plans.