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Tourists in Maya Bay

The water that bears the boat is the same that swallows it up. A place could be popular among people, but it could also be destroyed by people. In Thailand, Maya Bay is a gorgeous tourist attraction on Phi Phi Island. Over 6000 people visited Maya Bay in one day. In addition, there were over 460 thousand tourists in 2016. Because of a famous movie “The Beach” released in 1998, Maya Bay was flooded with tourists. The abundant visitors on the bay caused a few environmental issues. Nowadays, more and more environmentalists strive for closing Maya Bay in order to protect the natural ecosystems. Therefore, I believed that Maya Bay should be closed to tourists. And there are two reasons that I argue about the environment issues in Maya Bay.

First, overtourism caused marine pollution in Maya Bay. Because the tourists took a cruise to the bay, the ocean was polluted by the cruises’ oil and carbon dioxide. Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a Thailand's leading marine biologist, said that about 77 percent of coral reefs have been ruined by the tourism. And the figure was 30 percent higher than decade ago. In addition, Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat said that coral bleaching has increased in Maya Bay. Therefore, more and more environmentalists ask to close Maya Bay permanently.

Second, overtourism caused ecological pollution in Maya Bay. Because the tourists really loved to go snorkeling in Maya Bay, the marine ecosystem was damaged by the tourists. Abundant tourists would spend at least three hours swimming, snorkeling and feeding fish in the water. The tourists severely devastated the marine ecosystem because they would produce trash and bother the marine organisms. Even though Thai authorities had already announced to shut down Maya Bay in June 2018, the level of pollution in Maya Bay was still serious. Furthermore, Thai authorities decided to shut down Maya Bay until June 2021 in order to restore the marine ecosystem.

Due to those reasons, I believed that Maya Bay should be closed to tourists. Although Thailand's National Parks Department announced that they would control the number of tourists and the government would limit the number of visitors to 1,200 people in one day, I still believe that Maya Bay should be shut down permanently. Having fun is a moment, but having a healthy marine environment is a long-term solution. And there may be serious consequences for us all, if we don’t protect Maya Bay from tourism. People would not care about the importance about the causes and effects of ecological pollution. So we cannot allow tourism to damage Maya Bay. The only way to restore marine ecosystem in Maya Bay is to stop tourists from traveling to there.

References:

1. Maya Bay - the Thai beach from the Leo Dicaprio movie The Beach closes indefinitely . October 03, 2018 . The Sun . https://www.thesun.co.uk/travel/5566800/thailand-maya-bay-the-beach-closed-tourists/amp/

2. 泰國瑪雅灣關閉至2021年：天堂擁擠如廣場 . May 13, 2019 . BBC News 中文 .

https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/world-48250357.amp

3. Phuket News: Officials consider reopening Maya Bay to boost tourism . November 05, 2020 . The Phuket News Com .

https://www.thephuketnews.com/officials-consider-reopening-maya-bay-to-boost-tourism-77886.php

4. Is Maya Bay At The Phi Phi Islands Open? . April 23, 2021 . 5 Star Marine Phuket .
   https://5starmarinephuket.com/2020/08/28/is-maya-bay-at-the-phi-phi-islands-open/