It’s said we can’t have too much of a good thing, but when it comes to tourism, it looks like we actually can.
Maya Bay on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh will be closed and unavailable to visitors all summer long this year while a crew tries to repair damages that are the result of over-tourism.
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Maya Bay gets 5,000 visitors a day, most often by boat from Phuket or Koh Phi Phi, says the Guardian, and the wear and tear of all those docking boats, the human traffic and the discarded garbage have turned the once-perfect beach into anything but perfection.
Ironically, the beach became a hot spot after a movie, The Beach, starring Leonardo DiCaprio depicted an American backpacker who visits Thailand and finds the perfect beach. This fame turned out to be the beach’s undoing, made sadder by the fact that DiCaprio is a known environmentalist himself.
As Thailand is already suffering from an environmental dilemma — almost 80 percent of Thailand’s coral reefs have been destroyed — this work can’t be taken care of too soon.
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The hope is that this closure is temporary, and once it reopens after the off-season, it will be restored to its former glory and will be ready for visitors.
This is why we can’t have nice things. Or places, it seems.
Now, no one go ruining any other tropical paradise for us, OK?
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