Eco-tourism hope for Thai beach

These are the beautiful Phi Phi islands in Thailand. They are in danger.

Maya Bay is famous. It was in the film "The Beach". Its beach is 250 metres. But every day, over 6,000 tourists visit in boats. This is dangerous. In 2018, 60 percent of the fish and corals disappeared.

After Covid-19, it is open to tourists again. Now, they are trying to be friendly to the environment.

Sirithon Thamrongnawasawat works at Singha Estate. They teach people about the environment.

Sirithon Thamrongnawasawat: "We would like to make sure that everyone has been educated so that's why we come up with the Marine Discovery Centre (MDC) where we show the tourists what is the impact, what is the biodiversity, what is the relationship between your behaviour and the impact to the corals."

During Covid-19, the corals grew back. Sharks came back too. Kullawit Limchularat is a marine biologist. He's helping the sharks.

Kullawit Limchularat: "We have a plan to give awareness to the tourists about the importance of the sharks in ecology and we have a plan to release them back into nature."

On 1st January, Maya Bay opened again to tourists. But there are rules. Boats can't go into the bay. And they want few tourists.

There will be less business for the local area. But they want responsible tourists.

Sirithon Thamrongnawasawat: "We would love to have more responsible tourists and also, those who come can help the economy of the local people."

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