Just four months after its epic reopening in January, officials are announcing that Thailand’s Maya Bay, located on Koh Phi Phi Leh in Krabi, is planning to temporarily close again from August to September. The bay had reopened in January after closing in 2018, before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, because of how much tourism had damaged the ecosystem.
Since the reopening, almost 100,000 people have visited the bay this year, raking in over 20 million baht of income, according to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment. But yesterday, the ministry announced the bay will temporarily close again in order to further protect its fragile wildlife.
The minister said that even though the ministry had taken strict measures to limit the number of visitors to Maya Bay, over 3,000 visitors came every day during Songkran. The ministry allows 380 tourists per hour to visit the island,…
