by Along the Thai island beach to beaches, vendors are busy setting up tables covered with souvenirs and sunglasses. Staff stand outside massage shops and restaurants beckoning to passers-by, hoping to attract tourists.
Soon, more customers may be passing through the area. The island is one of many locations that will feature in the third season of The White Lotus, a series that is so popular that previous locations, Hawaii and Sicily, have seen a boom in travel demand.
On beaches, filming is taking place this year at the Four Seasons, a five-star luxury hotel surrounded by tropical forest and overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.
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Crews were seen across the island, with one restaurant owner posting Instagram photos with actors Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood and Francesca Corney after visiting for dinner. Online fans – particularly those of Thai singer Lisa Manobal, from K-pop group Blackpink – have been sharing updates on where filming is taking place.
For an island that relies heavily on tourism as its main industry, local businesses welcome any increase in visitor numbers. Sawan Haatongchai, 43, who works in a massage shop in Fisherman’s Village by the beaches, said the number of tourists had improved after the pandemic. “But their spending power seems to be less. There is a different vibe, different habits,” he said. A promotion from The White Lotus will help, he thinks.
But there is also uneasiness among local environmentalists about how the island has achieved a balance between the number of tourists there and the need to protect its natural resources.
Rapid development of beaches has already put a lot of pressure on the environment. The island has drained its water due to the opening of luxury spa hotels and golf courses. Speedboats and noisy beach parties scared the marine life away. The development of new houses, sometimes in violation of building regulations, has increased the fear of landslides and floods. The huge increase in the number of people going to beaches – by visiting tourists, and the workers who have moved to the island to serve them – has also created a huge amount of litter.
“The local authority and the community need to sit down and talk seriously about how we deal with it, [and how] to balance these things,” said Dr. Kannapa Pongponrat Chieochan, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who is from the island and a researcher on sustainable development.
She said lessons should be learned from Maya Bay, which became one of the most famous beaches in the world after its starring role in the film The Beach in 2000. The site was flooded with visitors, polluting its waters. and destroying its corals. The authorities finally closed Maya Bay to tourists for more than three years, until it reopened with stricter controls in 2022.
White Lotus had a significant impact on its locations. The first season, filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea in Hawaii, reportedly drove a 425% year-over-year increase in the hotel’s web traffic. Popularity also rose in Sicily, which was featured in season two. San Domenico Palace, a former monastery overlooking the sea that starred in the series, was reported to be fully booked for months. The cost of a villa at Four Seasons Samui this month starts at around £900 per night, excluding service charge, taxes and coral reef conservation fee.
From white sand beaches to pristine beaches and hotels, there is a stark symbol of the environmental cost of tourism: a mountain of trash weighing 150,000 tons. The landfill, which stews in the evening heat, began to emit a putrid stench, accumulating after the island’s incinerator more than ten years ago, according to residents. Another 150 tonnes are added to the pile every day.
Last year residents were so frustrated with the problem that they announced they would file a lawsuit against the municipality, the city mayor and the governor of Surat Thani over health threats posed by the landfill, which they said was polluting wells groundwater in his village. They were unsuccessful in obtaining compensation.
Sutham Samthong, deputy mayor for beaches, said that the local authorities were in the process of moving the trash, and in the last three years 150,000 tons had already been sent to the mainland – which means that half the pile is from 300,000 tons.
Sutham added that the authorities were taking steps to protect the environment, including by training hotel staff to educate tourists about respecting natural resources, raising awareness among local people about the need which is to separate waste, and by enforcing laws to control development.
But Panithan Boonsa, chairman of the Local Beach Tourism Association, who helped coordinate the legal action, said there was a lack of balance between the island’s finite resources and the development of new resorts. “It should really slow down,” he said.
The impact of tourism on beaches during the pandemic was highlighted. There were fewer cars, there was less pollution, and sea turtles returned to lay eggs on beaches to beaches, Panithan said.
However, the pandemic has been a particularly difficult time for local businesses, especially smaller vendors whose income has disappeared overnight.
“Of course I want more tourists to come here so we can do more business,” said Ruam Intachai, 65, who runs a small food shop near the landfill. New developments and hotels were being built, she said, and that would be a positive thing if it brought more customers.
‘Without sea, sand and sun, no one will come’
The growth of the island’s population is a challenge for waste management and water supply. Estimates from 1998 suggest that more than 700,000 people a year were coming to beaches. In 2023 the number of tourists arriving at airport to beaches reached 2.2 million. In addition there are now 70,000 local people, and 200,000 come to the beaches to work.
Beaches require 30,000 cubic meters of water per day to supply their residents and businesses. The majority, 24,000 cubic meters, is brought to the island via an underwater pipeline from Surat Thani on the mainland, but reservoir supplies are insufficient to compensate for the shortfall. Sutham, the deputy mayor, said the government had promised a second pipeline, but “they haven’t specified the time frame yet”.
Large hotels buy water privately but this is too expensive for residents. Many have purchased tanks to store water when supplies are running low, or to extract groundwater. Residents have reported not being able to shower at home for days, or having to use the toilets at a nearby temple because they have no water supply.
Anon Vatayanon, who owns a beach printing shop and is an environmental activist, said that much more emphasis needs to be placed on how the island is sustainably maintained. “It’s not just about attracting more people and using our natural resources – no matter how convenient that may be or what we can achieve. Without natural resources – the sea, sand and sun, the unique selling point of beaches – no one will come.”
Additional reporting by Pirada Anuwech
