Thailand and the fallout from mass tourism | DW Documentary

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After visiting Cyprus many times over the last 10 years as a tourist and now living here for the last year, I can definitely tell that a lot of Cyprus has sold out to the tourist. Very sad reality, tourism is an ugly business when you start losing the authenticity that originally brought the tourists in the first place.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 205 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/SeraVale πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

It's everywhere, it's an epidemic! My neighboring city Kyoto, Japan is undergoing the same event from mass tourism. People visit the city to experience tranquility and tradition, but all they get is screaming tourists, traffic jam, long queue for public transportation. There's literally no place in the city that's not crowded, and rents are rising rapidly. Economic benefit from tourism is a double edged blade for the local residents, it's a difficult problem to balance.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 112 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/polytopey πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

Best comment from Youtube: "34:31...TOURISTS? Dumping wood planks and broken tv's???? I don't think so."

Lol

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 26 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/shanghaidry πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

Living in Prague, the Czech Republic, I can confirm the entire city center is a tourist trap with almost every store overcharging 50-100%. You only go to the city center if you work there.

Plus then you have the tourists that look at everything through their phone and never look where they're actually going. Drives me nuts..Seen so many accidents because of this stupidity.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 36 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/Danecek πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

I live right by Zion National Park in Utah and it is about 1% the size of Thailand and has 24 million/ year. Park is super Clean, very little destruction, and it’s limited by how many people can actually cram into the tiny canyon. US Park Management does a great job of mass tourism handling.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 52 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/mizzlez πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

I like the idea of limited tourism. Caps on how many people can visit an area, strict rules for where people can go, what they touch, etc. There are such very real risks... but tourism is also very good for the local economy. In somewhere like Nepal for instance, tourism is starting to bring in lots of much-needed money into the local economy. However, same thing, they now have campaigns like β€œclean up Everest” because of all the litter which is incredibly unfortunate :( I’d like to think a balance can be reached 🀞

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 47 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/scarlettrinity πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

Costa Rica does tourism very well with the focus on eco tourism. I found Thailand a beautiful place but my God people have no respect for the environment. Everyone wants to go to the island where they filmed The Beach and it's over crowded and people are just taking shitty pics for Instagram

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 36 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/chestertoronto πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

If mass tourism does more harm than good is the alternative that everyone stays in their corner of the globe? Or is there somewhere in the middle? I hate the idea of tourism somewhat ruining the culture of a place and what it originally was but also hate the idea of not exploring the world you were born on.

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 26 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/pxxcebone πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies

After living in Thailand for 8 years and speaking the language, I can clearly say it is the Thai people who are the litterers. Of course, they will never take responsibility for it when there is a scapegoat around.

You can find non-Thai people cleaning up the beaches!

πŸ‘οΈŽ︎ 7 πŸ‘€οΈŽ︎ u/[deleted] πŸ“…οΈŽ︎ Jul 09 2019 πŸ—«︎ replies
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[Music] Thailand spectacular rocky islands and fine grained sandy beaches turquoise blue water just how you imagine a holiday destination more than 9,000 kilometers away from cold old Germany [Music] and this mystery hottie tourists flocking to sites like the famous James Bond island where Roger Moore fought the bad guys as secret agent double-oh-seven today it's all about selfies and self-expression when you see these guys walking around in swimming trunks a little undignified I'd say terrible but it was to be expected it was marketed that way thailand's dream beaches are suffocating in plastic garbage [Music] untreated wastewater is discharged straight into the sea tens of thousands of snorkelers explore the underwater landscape and cause irreparable damage to the sensitive coral reefs by trampling all over them [Music] in the last two years we found that modern 77% dimension Oh heavy dimension so we expect that if we don't do anything the problem will more and more so how much damage does mass tourism cause that's our question [Music] the first stop in our journey is the town of Phuket in the south of Thailand most vacationers here head to the beach of Bataan the wide sandy Bay fascinated us when we came here for the first time eight years ago fun on the beach and a bit of adventure to boot vacation dreams [Music] [Music] but the number of tourists coming to Thailand has more than doubled since then now it's more than 34 million people every year what changes has that brought about the next morning we see the downside of mass tourism local diving instructors regularly fish garbage out of the sea by the sack load their business depends on keeping the natural environment as intact as possible what what do they find in the sea torn Nets from the trawlers emptying the sea of Patong of fish of course fresh fish is a food table for both the locals and the hordes of tourists but diving instructor Dave Wilson says the fishing nets are endangering the coral reefs off the coast so it depends on the type of net if it's a if it's a rope type net then they can colonize that but if it's a plastic type net then it causes a lot of damage nylon type Nets they cause a lot of damage to the corals the Nets settle on the fragile corals and literally and rip them up Dave Wilson has found a lot today in addition to all the other plastic garbage chain bottles single-use plastic this is the biggest threat to to the environment at the moment and a lot of people's opinion as we also got plastic bags these the wrappers that the plastic bottles come in so with the winds they just get blown away into the sea and yes here we have again more examples of that [Applause] and so the garbage generated by millions of tourists is increasingly choking Paquette's once beautiful beaches [Music] even the monkeys have learned to drink from plastic cups the internationally renowned marine ecologist Tom Tamron iwasa watt has been studying the effects of plastic waste on the ecosystem for the last decade the first thing is a big one it's just a hum with the current and covert ahora so if you either press the covert the corrode or Kankuro can breathe the Kuro can keep the air yeah the water movement is stopped because it's like a human if you go work first thing over your head you cannot survive that is a one big problem and also the net plastic is mean also the fishing net or something like that nylon or something like that crack to the coral and with the current take it out the Korean will Stroup strong enough to crack or Horo we want to find out what consequences the increasing environmental pollution caused by tourism has for the coral reefs of Phuket so we join a diving trip to the island of curvature but we can forget about spending a quiet day alone in this natural paradise there are dozens of ships out there [Music] in 2010 we went to Karachi for the first time and found an underwater world of enchanting beauty a leopard shark harmless to humans [Music] huge sponges and colorful corals on the seabed [Music] so how's it looking now what has changed our first impression the underwater world is still in many places species rich and beautiful but we were still more impressed by their diving here in 2010 than we are today [Music] now the water is a lot Klaudia and we find garbage in many places on the seabed and the coral is showing the effects of climate change as well if the water is too warm it eats away their sensitive corals [Music] but sewage garbage and too many divers are also leaving their mark a carpet of plastic waste is floating on the surface of the water the current has pushed the garbage from the open sea into the bay it's becoming more and more common we learn in the late afternoon we returned to the fantastic island world of Phuket [Music] [Music] for the next day we booked a trip to the peepee Islands probably the most beautiful islands and southern Thailand we start with some shopping in Phuket Harbor we're supposed to buy bathing shoes that will protect us from sharp-edged corals a pair costs around 8 euros and a lot of being sold major major at last we set off for the world famous islands the music on board fights with the sound of the 500 horsepower engine on the way we stopped at a coral reef for a bit of snorkeling [Music] few people on board have ever had anything to do with masks and snorkels and a lot of them can't swim either [Music] one speed load after another ferries the snorklers to the reefs thousands of tourists every day are trashing the fragile reef [Music] [Music] for decades coral polyps have built up the reef millimeter by millimeter now a lot of them is destroyed in just a few minutes it's very hard to do to make that people understand how to behave they understand they don't want to harm the karo but they don't know no they don't understand they come from inland China inland quarry or whatever that may be the country then we have a coral reef before so they don't have any understanding about Horace because in their country there is no horror reef [Music] the Beebe Islands are actually especially protected national park but since the organizers of the day trips discovered them for themselves millions of tourists have been visiting the picturesque Rock Islands and killing off nature bit by bit next stop the so called monkey bay a real tourist attraction today we see three monkeys on the rocks with tourists on six speedboats crowding around the best photo spot last year we have more than two hi Trey million visitor at the peepee island with her is only 14 square kilometer of the area and the coral reef is only 2 square kilometer so you can expect that a very crowded I think the peepee island may be the home the most visit coral reef in the world the consequences are devastating Andrew Hewitt runs a dive center on the PBE islands he isn't prepared to accept that Hewitt and his team have been monitoring the state of the underwater world for years repeatedly diving to count the corals and document the damage again today Andrew Hewitt is underway with his underwater camera in the popular diving areas we need to respect that the more people add a location the more impact is going to have on coral reefs so there has to be a maximum limit that we can have of people visiting an area any one particular time if we just let it go and let people do whatever they want it can get out of control and you can see there's a big difference in the health of the corals when there's too many people for the first time the Thai authorities have reacted the world-famous Maya Bay where the movie the beach with Leonardo DiCaprio was shot has been closed to tourists for several months to give the corals a chance to recover I think I have mixed feelings about it I think it's very good that we would do things like that but if you just close one area then you have to expect that all the people that go to one area then going to go to another area and put pressure on another area you can see what happens here on the main island pipi done since maya bay has been closed the day-trippers are brought to this beach by noon it turns into a gigantic speed boat parking lot after a selfie at the beach it's a short walk into the village and maybe some fast food before we move on to the next attraction so what are the people who live on PP don get from a day trippers we visit the Dowell restaurant which offers Thai cuisine at reasonable prices [Music] but the owner says he has few customers although PP Donna's overrun by tourists he's fighting for his existence hardly any tourists come here restaurants that have the most guests are on the beach where the boats are moored the tourists always want to keep an eye on their boats and servile oh they're afraid if they come into the village they might get lost PP don is the only island here that is permanently inhabited the thousands of day-trippers have not brought prosperity to the people here the big tourism companies earn money from the excursions with the locals often only have jobs at the time minimum wage of just under 9 euros per day the interior of the island looks like many places on Phuket waste disposal is a big problem this old man is drying fish one of the local staple foods he sells it to his neighbors he tells us something background yeah yeah hey doc doc hey he says he's doing it because he doesn't know what else he can do to earn a living he tells us the Flies are particularly annoying so he has to keep the fish in plastic bags to keep them away yeah I'm away ones how in one tower low incomes are not the only problem the people on pee-pee don have the islands exposed location means it's also prone to natural disasters we notice signs saying evacuation route if a tidal wave or tsunami is heading towards the island both locals and tourists are supposed to flee to safety but where is the escape route actually lead we follow the signs after a few meters it ends at an iron gate a deathtrap in an emergency the escape routes were set up after the last tsunami with international donations but today the danger seems to be forgotten and not only on a PP Islands December 2004 700 people died as a result of a tsunami on PB dawn a few hundred kilometers away in the tourist town of karak it claimed more than three thousand victims holidaymakers filmed it with their video cameras [Music] but today almost nothing in car lock recalls the catastrophe the force of the tidal wave held this Coast Guard patrol boat a kilometer into the hinterland it was left there as memorial and the tsunami memorial museum was built right next to it 14 years for the memorial lives from donations Rachna cantante the curator tells us these photos from december 2004 show relaxed Bay this and in a background the incoming tidal wave the museum does not only want to remind people it also wants to make them more aware of the danger because there is little time left after a seaquake before the tidal wave reaches the coast this graph shows how the 2004 tsunami spread but what if the authorities and the tourist resort of carlac learned from the catastrophe we noticed that almost the entire coast is covered with large hotel complexes the guests there would be the first victims other hotels prepared are there any emergency plans many hotels near near near the beach and they have no any plan to among the people if the tsunami come because if we don't know when will it come and we don't know how many time that we have to leave and what about the escape routes that were established with international aid after 2004 to the people here in Kolak take the danger seriously we follow the signs again we're not far from the nearest shelter thousands of inhabitants and tourists should be able to find safety there [Music] we eventually find it it's full of furniture and there's an elevator for the disabled but it's derelict the power hasn't worked for a long time after this enemy we have many support for evacuation wood but now many of the designs broken and no organization that fixes so the evacuation route doesn't work anymore now now he's helped the O's buy but many office is working and many of it is not clear where where where the way that we can move right [Music] the lessons at the 2004 disaster seem to have been forgotten we continue on to the next destination of our journey the planner national park [Music] our excursion here is well organized first we explore the small bays by paddle boat that's a source of income for the locals a boatman here earns about 13 euros per day which by thai standards is a wage they can live on [Music] our next stop on the tour is a cave now at low tide when the water level is low we can pass through the cave to the interior of the island [Music] but we're not alone here either dozens of tourists from other excursion boats are also here marveling at the bizarre rock formations and a mighty mangrove roots [Music] the travel brochure says we'll get lunch here at KO panyi an original muslim fishing village built on stilts in the sea [Music] the original village quickly turns out to be a collection of tourist restaurants and souvenir shops after all 10 million visitors pass through here every year all of them pay the tour operators a flat rate for their lunch so the locals get little benefit from it after lunch we look at the souvenir shops shark's teeth are very popular this year this one costs around 40 euros but German customs duties will increase that price several fold sharks are a threatened species so just like corals and shells they're subject to the Convention on International trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora and the import of these souvenirs to Germany is prohibited otherwise you can buy t-shirts caps and scarves just like everywhere else [Music] finally hidden at the back of the village we find the locals huts there are Muslims so perhaps they are bothered by the lightly dressed Europeans [Music] [Music] this local asks us to buy a souvenir from her she lives off the trade she says and has no other income okay okay [Music] two hours later we head off to the high point of our excursion [Music] this is probably the most famous rock in the world Roger Moore alias James Bond shot scenes for the movie the man with the Golden Gun here but today the villains are all gone all that is left are thousands of tourists who all want just one thing a photo a selfie to show that they were there [Music] how do you like it here yeah yeah it's okay okay okay and all the people terrible but it was to be expected who was marketed this way what do you think same here no the same it's still beautiful we should have come another time perhaps in the morning or evening but would that have helped the crowds of tourists surged through the small island from early in the morning until late in the evening when you see these guys walking around in swimming trucks a little undignified I'd say at the other end of the island there are more souvenir stalls selling the same travel souvenirs for which the Seas are plundered like this Tiger shelf my mother James Bond island in the pond our national park or cop income as the island is really called is a natural gem that has degenerated into a tourist hotspot [Music] we set off for the last stop of our journey before we returned to Phuket [Music] we reach the island of Koh Tao off the southeast coast of Thailand when you see these beaches you can hardly believe that Koh Tao was a prison island until 1947 today it's more about wellness time massage is a specialty here young people and scuba divers are particularly drawn to Koh Tao we remember the pictures we shot here in 2010 [Music] there was an abundance of fish a bull shark crossed our path he shouldn't get too close to them sometimes they also attack people [Applause] [Music] [Music] back to the present Simon darling and Dorothy Lee from the environmental Association eco koh tao take us out to sea they want to show us what's changed since we first came here a whole fleet of boats awaits us at the dive site diving is a mass event here thousand crowd the few dive sites [Music] suddenly we come across a whale shark the biggest fish in the world it's harmless to humans the divers are completely over the moon [Music] but now we see the consequences here destroyed coral there are definitely too many tourists here if we could limit the number of tourists or change to a Marine Park status it would help a lot and limit fishing as well fishing is also a big impact on our region we sail back to koh tao we're always under observation because our shoot on the island is strictly monitored by the tourist police we're meant to just show the good parts we're secretly shooting these pictures the garbage of many tourists ends up in the islands interior in unofficial dumps like this [Music] the wastewater flows untreated into the sea in many places 1.5 million tourists visit hotel every year the sea is polluted which also damages the corals [Music] in the afternoon we meet Dorothy Lee from eco kowtow again she's welding a metal construction the point of which is not immediately apparent I'm building a steel structure in a shape of a triple masted Chinese junk for our coral garden in junkyard an artificial reef this is the plan coral branches are placed on the metal structures over time they grow into an artificial reef [Music] it's hard work individual pieces of healthy coral are tied to the construction where they grow over the years [Music] many diving tourists now look at the artificial reef in all but don't know if we do our part to build and expand the artificial reefs then you know I think at least it gives the other dive sites a chance to recover [Music] as we drive back from koh tao to procure it we think this could be one way into the future artificial coral reefs as an attraction for diving tourists to take the pressure off the natural environment it's a great idea that has already become reality on ko Tao [Music] on the way back we constantly meet the fishing boats that are over fishing the sea [Music] every morning fully laden trollers call at shalom ducats fishing port their caches are offloaded by the ton millions of tourists want one thing above all else fresh sea fish on their plates the fish are sorted according to size on the key side when the shaman's come we fail Lake fausse oh yeah so come here and buy fish has become expensive on Phuket this is especially true for the larger fish which go directly to the tourist restaurants the smaller ones are sold on the market that's the real problem says to buyer [Music] maybe business is tough in order to catch the coveted big fish the trawlers stay at sea for days on end the fishermen themselves earn the least from this business many are Burmese guest workers from neighboring Myanmar they get just 2 or 3 euros a day they say but nobody will confirm that in front of a camera the tourists who admire the fresh fish and Phuket know nothing about all this parrot fish for example typically inhabit coral reefs when they are caught the Nets destroy the corals the fishes bought and then prepared in a restaurant for a small fee you must be hungry and on the beach right behind the restaurant this place looks like so many other places waste and sewage from restaurants flowing untreated into the sea what would be the best way to further develop tourism and Thailand the Pacific Asia travel organization which is committed to responsible tourism and says the government in far-off Bangkok is planning to increase the number of tourists to 50 million per year large companies earn the most from the hordes of tourists while the people here at Patong Beach work in the kitchens for minimum wage or sell chilled drinks on the beach it's already crowded enough at Bataan beach and high season more tourists [Music] Bhutan's man Shalem new clips up is aware that tourism is the most important source of income nevertheless she's worried about the plans coming out of Bangkok there's a lot going on in high season and I think it's ok right now but if more come it'll be difficult as far as the water supply sewage garbage and transport are concerned we think we're already at the limit the country needs rational and sustainable tourism development policy she says development that takes not only economic interests but also the interests of people nature and the environment into account otherwise Thailand will soon cease to be a tropical paradise [Music] you [Music]
Info
Channel: DW Documentary
Views: 1,567,481
Rating: 4.6952024 out of 5
Keywords: Documentary, Thailand, tourism, mass tourism, coral reefs, overfishing, pollution, plastic waste, submarine environment, DW, Deutsche welle, garbage, the beach, damaged, the Sea, holidaymakers, holiday, danger, dangerous, fallout, thailand travel, mass tourism documentary, mass tourism in thailand, plastic waste documentary, environment, plastic, waste, overfishing documentary, overfishing video, pollution in the ocean, pollution documentary
Id: 78xdMXOx7Rw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)
Published: Wed Jun 05 2019
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