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Thailand will soon one of its world famous beaches in an effort to the damage done to its coral by mass tourism. The beach is in Maya Bay on the tiny island of Koh Phi Phi Leh. It worldwide attention after it heavily in the Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster movie The Beach. The film the Maya Bay beach on the bucket lists of millions of travellers worldwide. The result has an influx of up to 5,000 sun worshippers a day to its emerald shores. They on hundreds of boats, which have irreversible damage to the bay's coral. Officials say that most of the coral in the bay has . The beach will close between June and September to the coral recover.

Experts that almost 80 per cent of Thailand's coral reefs have been , and that once pristine beaches have been by tourism. The deputy dean of the Faculty of Fisheries at Bangkok's Kasetsart University is an outspoken critic of the level of tourism Thailand's coastline has to . He said the biggest culprits were beachfront hotels, boat anchors into and breaking the coral, and plastic waste dumped in the sea. He the "ideal solution" is for Maya Bay to closed permanently. He said: "While it's a very pretty bay, visiting it with a flotilla of boats and hordes of other tourists rather from the magic." He the temporary closure.