Thailand seeks ‘good tourists’ for beach from DiCaprio film amid nature’s fragile recovery

Mass tourism had brought Thailand’s Phi Phi islands, immortalised in Leonardo DiCaprio movie ‘The Beach’, to the brink of ecological catastrophe

A long Covid-19 shutdown helped recovery efforts – and authorities insist the mistakes of the past will not be repeated as tourism slowly restarts

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Tourists in longtail boats approach Ko Phi Phi Leh in Thailand. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:43pm, 7 Dec 2021

While travel stopped and the world locked down, in the dazzling blue waters of Thailand’s idyllic Phi Phi islands, a gentle renaissance was under way.

Mass tourism had brought the archipelago, immortalised in Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, to the brink of ecological catastrophe.

Now Thailand hopes to make the Phi Phi islands the standard-bearer for a new, more sustainable model of tourism as the country reopens to visitors after the long coronavirus shutdown.

Near a coral islet just a few kilometres from Maya Bay – the iconic cove surrounded by towering tree-clad cliffs that was home to the beach paradise of the DiCaprio film – marine biologist Kullawit Limchularat dives through eight metres of crystalline water and carefully releases a young bamboo shark.

His mission: to repopulate the reefs after years of damage caused by uncontrolled visitor numbers, a crisis that got so bad the authorities were forced to close Maya Bay itself in 2018.

A bamboo shark pictured on the seabed after being released near Thailand’s Phi Phi islands. Photo: AFP

Five small brownbanded bamboo sharks are set free, their striped bodies and long tails flickering through the water.

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