Thailand shutting some of its islands as tourists’ arrival tops

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Thailand will shut Maya Bay and some of its islands for four months from June as the tourists’ arrival increases.

The decision made by Thailand Tourism to keep visitors away was made on Wednesday by Thailand’s national parks and wildlife department.

The islands have very delicate in eco-systems that simply cannot handle so many people, pollution from boats and beachfront hotels.

Coral reefs have been degraded by warmer seas and overcrowding. Sometimes, a complete closure is the only way for nature to heal.

More than three-quarters of Thailand’s coral reefs have been damaged by rising sea temperatures and unchecked tourism, said Thon, who last week recommended limiting visitors to its 22 marine parks to six million a year to enable their recovery.Currently, they number about 5.5 million.

Thailand closed dozens of dive sites to tourists in 2011 for environment cleansing, after unusually warm seas caused severe damage to coral reefs in the Andaman Sea, one of the world’s top diving regions. It also shut some islands in 2016.

The sandy beaches of Thailand helped top draw record numbers of tourists last year, with revenues contributing about 12 per cent of the economy. The government expects 38 million visitors this year.

Southeast Asia is expected to bear the brunt of rising damage to coral reefs, depriving fishermen of incomes and leaving nations exposed to incoming storms and damage from surging seas.

In the Philippines, which is among the most vulnerable to climate change, about two million people visited Boracay last year.  Tour operators say more than 36,000 jobs are at stake.

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