Thailand authorities decided to indefinitely extend the closure of the beautiful bay made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio movie "The Beach" until it recovers from years of environment damage caused by too many tourists.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/S. Lalit
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The announcement said an assessment by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation found that after having been closed to tourists for four months, Maya Bay still had not recovered. Initially, the beach had been set to reopen for tourists on October 1.
Maya Bay, part of the Hat Noppharat Thara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, had remained open year round to cater to tourist demand since a Hollywood crew set foot there in 1999 to film the dark backpacker tale that starred DiCaprio. Many Thai marine national parks are shut annually for four months.
The pristine beach on the southern island of Koh Phi Phi was closed for the first time in June after it was discovered that most of its coral had been damaged by boat anchors. The part of the bay where damaged corals are rehabilitating and new corals are being planted has been closed to boats permanently, the National Park Department has said.
The temporary closure will continue each year to prevent further damage to the environment. Thailand's overall coral damage has reached a "critical" level, with an alarming increase to 78 per cent from 30 per cent a decade ago, said Thon Thamrongnawasawat, a prominent marine ecologist overseeing the effort.
The beach at Maya Bay had received an average of 200 boats and 4,000 visitors each day. Recent surveys by a team led by marine biologists found a large part of the coral reefs in the area is gone and sea life has virtually disappeared.
at/is/ks (dpa)
Landscapes like in a movie
Movies awaken all kinds of desires. Offering tours to film locations has developed into a flourishing business - in the footsteps of the stars.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/G. Ehrenzeller
The Beach
Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach" played American student Richard Fischer, who sets off in search of a legendary beach in Thailand. Filmed in 2000 in the Maya Bay in the Ko Phi Phi archipelago, which has been a national park since 2004. Every day boats bring tourists to the beautiful bay - so much so that the sheer number of visitors has become a problem.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Utrecht
Heidi
She's perhaps the most famous Swiss person in the world: Heidi, the little girl, who has to leave her beloved Alpine home to temporarily move to Frankfurt. The children's book by Johanna Spyri has been repeatedly made into a movie, the last time in 2015. Several communities where the book is set 20 years ago united to form the Heidiland holiday area. Heidi-tourism has been booming ever since.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/T. Burmeister
Avatar
The 3-D film by James Cameron fascinated audiences in 2009 with its mix of virtual and real worlds. The story is set on a moon called Pandora, which is similar to Earth, the landscape of which was based on the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in northern China. In a move to cash-in on marketing created by the film one of the bizarre looking chalk cliffs was renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain".
Image: picture-alliance/ANN/G. Cadiz
Harry Potter
The Hogwarts Express can be seen travelling across this landscape taking Harry Potter to exciting new adventures in the films. In real life the trip on the Jacobite Steam Train in the Scottish highlands is equally exciting. The train runs between Fort William and the fishing village Mallaig - and riding it makes you feel like you might be going to Hogwarts yourself.
Image: picture-alliance/StockPix/S. Lawson
Local Hero
The renowned British Film Institute declared "Local Hero" the best movie of all time in 1999. The Scottish landscape serves as a backdrop for the 1983 comedy, in which the driving force is charm of both nature and the people who live in it. These days the coastal village Pennan, which in the film was called Ferness, is world famous.
Director Peter Jackson decided that his home New Zealand was the perfect place to represent the fictitious world of Middle Earth, where Tolkien's novel "Lord of the Rings" is set. The film locations have become places of pilgrimage to movie fans from around the world. Pictured here is Lake Pukaki - which was used as the setting for Lake Town in the films
The film, set against the majestic backdrop of Kenya, tells the story of Danish baroness Tania Blixen, who starts a coffee plantation in Kenya at the end of the colonial era and falls in love with a local big game hunter Finch-Hatton. One of the most impressive movie scenes is their flight across Rift Valley. Kenya in the 1980s enjoyed a safari boom because of the film which continues to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Wildlife/S. Muller
Lawrence of Arabia
The monumental masterpiece by David Lean starring Peter O'Toole in the leading role in 1962 was partly filmed in the original settings in Jordan's Wadi Rum. This is where the actual British army officer Thomas Edward Lawrence was stationed during the Arab Revolt from 1917 until 1918. The film in 1963 won seven Oscars and four Golden Globe Awards.
Image: picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online
Star Wars
Tunisia's barren desert has featured in many movies like "Indiana Jones" or "The English Patient", but it really rose to fame as a setting in George Lucas' "Star Wars". What was used to portrait hero Luke Skywalker's home village "Nefta" has been a tourist attraction since 1995. When a shifting sand dune threatened the village, fans supported by the government managed save the film location.
Image: picture-alliance/blickwinkel/B. Bachmann
Stagecoach
Monument Valley in the US State Utah has become an iconic backdrop for many westerns. One name in particular will always be associated with this landscape: John Wayne. He celebrated his breakthrough as an actor in 1939 with the film "Stage Coach" directed by John Ford. This landscape was also iconically used in the most important motorbike movie of all times: Easy Rider.
