Maya Bay on Phi Phi island, a Thai beach made famous by the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” will stay closed indefinitely to give its ecosystem time to recover.
Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) on Tuesday (Oct 2) announced the bay will remain closed indefinitely.
"The ecosystem and the beach's physical structure have yet returned to its full condition," said the DNP on the official letter, adding that they would extend the closure from October onward "until natural resources return to normal."
Thailand regularly closes national parks and islands for a variety of reasons, from extreme weather to ecological recovery, but this was the first time such measures were taken in busy Maya Bay.
Maya Bay, was closed for four months on June 1 in a bid to salvage the area’s coral reefs, which have been damaged by warmer temperatures and a flood of tourists. But, four months closure was not enough.
“We need at least a year or even up to two years or maybe more for the environment to recover — this includes the coral reefs, mangrove and the beach,” Songtham Sukswang, the director of the Office of National Parks, told Reuters.
Data released by the DNP suggested that the park would see as many as 2.5 million visitors in 2018, a year-on-year rise of half a million.
On a visit to the area prior to its closure, visitor numbers multiplied by the minute as boats poured in an out of the bay, dropping off more bodies to sunbathe, snorkel and shoot photos.
Many visitors to the area are daytrippers from Phuket, which is less than an hour's ride away by speedboat.
Tourism makes up about 12 percent of Thailand’s economy, but there has been growing concern about the country’s ability to manage its rapidly growing number of visitors.
Sources: nypost.com, cnn.com