Scenic island bays in Andaman Sea to reopen to tourism

[webfact]

Scenic island bays in Andaman Sea to reopen to tourism

 

  

 

KRABI, 10 October 2016 (NNT) - Scenic island bays in the Andaman Sea off Krabi province, which had been temporarily closed, are reopening to tourism. 

Tanya Netithammakul, director general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, said Tachai Bay in Similan islands and Maya Bay in Pipi islands off Krabi will reopen on 15 October after they had been earlier found critically deteriorated and closed. 

However, the number of visitors to the bays will be limited daily in bid to contain the volume of garbage and keep the natural resources from being damaged, he said. A large number of travelers have visited Tachai Bay to view coral reefs and aquatic animals. 

The department is yet to take steps to restore those natural resources on the tourist island bays, he added.

 

-- nnt 2016-10-10

[PaoloR]

Ridiculous!

They close the bay for a couple of months during the low season. No recovery is possible on that time-scale.

Visitors have still been visiting the bay, there is no mechanism on hand to stop them and tours to Maya Bay are still being sold in Krabi.

How do they propose to limit the number of tourists? Apart from the over-population of the island caused by too many hotels, there are endless streams of boats from Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga visiting every day during the high season. A sea-patrol for a National Park that is already grossly under-manned?

 

"The department is yet to take steps to restore those natural resources on the tourist island bays, he added."

 

They have, as usual, done nothing. They have paid lip-service to complaints raised in the press by closing for a short period (when the weather was too bad on many days to even get to Maya Bay) then re-opened their cash-cow ready for the start of the money-tree flowering season.

 

 

[williamgeorgeallen]

almost high season again already?

[hanssna]

Is this story correct ? As far as I know, Tachai Island will remain closed for at least 2 more years.

[Grubster]

I would snorkel around a bit if it was in front of my hotel, would't waste my time taking a boat there.