Published on : Monday, June 4, 2018
The attraction would be closed for four months to provide its coral reefs and sea life a chance to recover.
It’s part of a rethink happening globally about unrestricted tourism that is fetching big dollars but damaging historic sites, harming the environment and alienating locals.
Last month, the Philippines began a six-month closure of popular Boracay Island, whose waters President Rodrigo Duterte described as a “cesspool.” Venice, that lives off tourism, installed gates at two access bridges during a four-day holiday in April so that it could turn back visitors if numbers became too much to handle.
Many of Thailand’s marine national parks are closed from mid-May to mid-October during the monsoon season. “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.
Thailand had around 35 million international visitors last year, marking a five-fold increase in little more than two decades.
“We’re almost certain that something good will happen in Maya Bay,” Thon said.