Revenge Travel May Be a Big Problem for Thailand’s Maya Bay

smallCycling through the crowded streets of Ton Sai Bay last Saturday, it was hard to see that Thailand’s tourism industry was in a slump. Crowds of tourists — sandals and smartphones aloft — made amphibious landings from fleets of tourist boats and marched on the beach.

Ton Sai is a day-tripper to Phi Phi, the larger island in the Phi Phi group, stopping for lunch at a pair of noisy hangar-style restaurants designed for large numbers of people to efficiently eat cheap buffet. Afterwards, they pack the beach for the obligatory selfie, finding a few square feet of uncrowded sand to preserve the Instagram-mythical Phi Phi Island as a sun-drenched haven for gorgeous influencers in straw fedoras and sheer beachwear — rather than a crowded place.

read more: Has the summer of revenge come?

For a boyish Thai guide standing nearby, however, the scene was a disturbing sight. He exhaled through gritted teeth and said the crowd was “not even” half of what it was before the pandemic started in early 2020.

“The Chinese are not here,” agrees one visitor, a soft-spoken Shanghai expat who has been living in the UK, scanning the faces of most Middle Eastern, South Asian and European people. Beijing’s draconian restrictions on the coronavirus have dried up Thailand’s largest tourism market. All levels of the kingdom’s tourism industry are anxiously awaiting its revival, but can world-renowned islands like Phi Phi cope with business as usual?

The fate of Maya Bay, Phi Phi’s most famous attraction, is a warning.

The dangers of overtourism

Maya Bay at Phi Phi Leh is famous as a filming location in Danny Boyle’s 2000 film beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Part of the Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, this stunning bay is surrounded by spectacular cliffs and boasts a 250-meter long white crescent beach, a platonic ideal.

After the movie was released, tourists flocked to Maya Bay. As many as 4,000 people arrive daily in tourist fleets that damage coral and scare away blacktip reef sharks that use the bay as a mating pool. The crowd trampled the fragile seabed. To stop further damage, authorities closed Maya Bay to tourists in June 2018.

When it reopened in January, visitor numbers were limited to 380 — not daily, but hourly. Approaching by boat is prohibited, as is swimming. Visitors must disembark at the pontoon pier at nearby Loh Sama Bay and walk to the Maya. This is not enough. Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa said that even with the new measures, Maya Bay was still “submerged” by Songkran – the country’s New Year’s holiday in April.

At the beginning of August, the famous bay was closed again for two months, just in time for the low season. This is the local equivalent of putting up a rope over the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Coliseum in Rome.

When wave conditions permit, cruise ships now rock for a few minutes at the entrance to the bay, allowing disappointed passengers to take photos from a distance before heading to Pileh Lagoon. The latter is another social media hotspot, and it’s easy to see why tourism can be both a blessing and a curse for these tiny islands. In Pileh, party boats moor to raucous music under spectacular limestone cliffs, while giddy day-trippers throw themselves into the water where they once had a good time. Plastic bottles and cigarette butts rushed to the rocks.

read more: Can Barcelona mend its love-hate relationship with tourists?

Thion Thamrongnawasawat, a marine scientist at Bangkok Agricultural University and an expert on the Maya Bay, told TIME that 30 years ago, 70-80 percent of the reefs in the bay were intact. When the bay closed in 2018, only 8 percent of the reef was alive. During the three-year closure, Thon and others replanted tens of thousands of new corals, about 50 percent of which survived.

But undoing decades of damage can be difficult, if not impossible. “As a marine scientist, if you want to permanently close the bay, that’s my happiness,” Thon said. But he acknowledged that in Thailand, where tourism accounts for about one-fifth of GDP, protecting marine ecosystems could cause pain for local people.

Two of the island’s popular departure points are Phuket and Krabi, which are 1 hour and 45 minutes respectively by speedboat from Phi Phi. The importance of both places to foreign holidaymakers cannot be overstated.

On the streets of Phuket, tourism seems to be everywhere: boat trips, taxi services, car and motorbike rentals, visa processing, hard cocktails, snorkeling, massages, boba tea, Pad Thai plates seem to be offered at every storefront or laundry service. Sometimes they offer all of the above, and it’s written in English, Russian, and Chinese.

Because of the pandemic, “we’ve had no income for two years,” said one operator, who books tours, runs a small laundromat and provides chauffeur services for tourists in his Toyota. “Fortunately, we were able to rent out our house, otherwise we would have no income at all.”

Women pose for a photo in front of a sign in Patong Beach, Phuket island, Thailand, October 28, 2021, as the country prepares to welcome tourists who will be fully vaccinated against the Covid-19 coronavirus from November 1 without quarantine.

MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP for GETTY IMAGES

Thailand and Sustainable Tourism

Andrew Hewett, who manages Phi Phi Island Coral Nursery, said there was no significant benefit to Maya Bay being closed for two months. High-season shutdowns would be more effective, he said: “Shut down when there’s a lot of people — and then you reduce the impact significantly.” Tour operators must also be educated about sustainable capacity in the bay, Hewett added.

This will not be easy. Phi Phi tours are advertised as extravagant photo opportunities rather than conscious expeditions to ecologically threatened places. They are also very affordable. Full-day guided tour from Phuket to Koh Phi Phi – visit local attractions such as Monkey Beach, “Viking” caves and Pillai Lagoon – for less than $60 per person including snorkeling, kayaking, lunch And soft drinks, and snacks to throw in.

In addition to travel agencies, operators and tour guides, every trip provides income for many people. A minivan driver who picks you up from your hotel and takes you to the pier; the crew; someone who rents out snorkels, fins, towels and lounge chairs; the restaurant and all its staff; the old ladies who sell coconut ice cream and sticky rice in Ton Sai Bay ; vendors offering bags of frozen pineapples; local stores, stocked with sunhats and sunscreen; boatmen who take you around the lake in wooden boats; and freelance photographers who follow you around the island, capturing your every move, electronically Mail sends you dozens of thumbnails for you to review at the end of the day. Convincing this group of the value of timeouts and quotas will always be an uphill battle.

read more: Climate change is a painful reckoning for tourism

Edward Koh, visiting professor of tourism at Bangkok University who has studied the impact of Maya Bay’s years-long closure on Phi Phi residents, said: “I think we have to open up at some point – and we’ll never fully understand. correct.”

Anuar Abdullah, founder of Ocean Quest Global, an organization that helps repopulate Maya Bay’s reefs, echoes official thinking, saying the bay must eventually be sold as a premium rather than a mass-market destination, with high prices acting as a deterrent.

“The extra price they pay [will] It actually helps to preserve that heritage,” he told TIME. “If we think about heritage, we think about future generations in a hundred or two hundred years — offspring. If we do not recover these savings, humanity will have nowhere to go. “

However, thinking beyond today is challenging enough for those who rely on Phi Phi for a normal life. “Are you happy?” the young guide from Ton Sai shouted to the roar of his speedboat as it took passengers to their next stop. “Yes,” they replied, with a hint of uncertainty.

“In Thailand,” he shouted, “everyone is happy!”

—Reporting by Aidyn Fitzpatrick/Phuket and Phi Phi

contact us at le****@ti**.com.