What Thailand's Maya Bay teaches us about the missing link in blue finance Valerie HickeyPushkala Ratan October 06, 2026 This page in: English

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/voices/what-thailand-s-maya-bay-teaches-us-about-the-missing-link-in-bl A few years ago, Maya Bay on Thailand's Ko Phi Phi Le was receiving an estimated 5,000 visitors a day, with roughly 200 boats anchoring in the bay daily. The national park around it earned 555 million baht (around US$16 million) from visitors in a single season, more than any other national park in Thailand. Yet the reef that drew them was collapsing: Marine biologists found that 50 to 80 percent of the surrounding coral reefs had been damaged by boat traffic, pollution, and overcrowding. In 2018, Thailand did something few tourism-dependent economies would dare: it closed the Bay.