Marine Parks Get Visitor Quotas As A Sign Of Reopening

Marine park visitor quotas are set to be handed down to locally-owned tourism operators in Thailand in a bid to support local communities after concerns over whether those communities are benefitting from marine tourism.

The announcement came during a speech yesterday by Varawut Silpa-archa, the Environment Minister, for World Ocean Day-making the reopening of national marine parks sound more promising.

Mr Varawut noted he has worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Sports to find a “proper model” that enables local communities to run their tourism businesses or even compete against big companies and foreign investors.

The ministry is going to announce “new normal” measures for visitors of national parks on Friday, he said.

The use of the Thai Chana mobile app’s check-in and check-out feature at national parks to limit visitors is expected to also be announced.

Additionally, in light of World Ocean Day, the ministry said it is drafting a new law to end the manufacturing of single-use plastic bags with a goal to recycle plastic waste by 2030.

New technologies have also been introduced with the aim of helping the marine ecosystems. Such examples were a drone that can explore ocean depths and monitor corals and marine species and a robot programmed to collect rubbish in rivers.

 

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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