Along the beach on the Thai island of Samui, vendors are busy setting up tables piled high with souvenirs and sunglasses. Staff stand outside massage shops and restaurants and gesture to passersby, hoping to attract tourists.
More customers may pass through the area soon. The island is one of several locations set to feature in the third season of the popular series The White Lotus, and previous filming locations in Hawaii and Sicily have seen an increase in demand from travellers.
Filming is taking place this year at the Four Seasons, a luxury five-star hotel on Samui surrounded by tropical forests and overlooking the Gulf of Thailand.
Relating to: While Thailand has fun with Songkran water fights, tourist destination Samui suffers from drought
One of the crew was seen posting Instagram photos around the island with actors Walton Goggins, Aimee Lou Wood and Francesca Corney visiting for dinner. Online fans, especially fans of Thai singer Lisa Manobal of K-pop group Blackpink, shared updates on where filming would take place.
On an island whose main industry relies heavily on tourism, any increase in visitor numbers is welcomed by local businesses. Sawan Haatongchai, 43, who works at a massage shop in Samui’s Fishing Village, said the number of tourists had rebounded after the pandemic. “But their spending power appears to be less. “It has a different atmosphere, different habits,” he said. He believes White Lotus’ promotion will help.
But there is also unease among local environmentalists about how the island balances tourist numbers with the need to protect its natural resources.
Rapid development on Samui has already placed intense pressure on the environment. The opening of luxury spa hotels and golf courses drained the island. Speedboats and noisy beach parties frightened marine life. The development of new villas, which at times violated building codes, has contributed to fears of landslides and floods. The huge increase in visitors to Samui, through tourists and workers moving to the island to serve them, has also led to the creation of enormous amounts of garbage.
“The local government and the local Samui community really need to sit down and have a serious talk about how we deal with this problem. [and how] Dr., an assistant professor at Thammasat University and sustainable development researcher from the island. “To balance these things out,” Kannapa Pongponrat Chieochan said.
He said lessons should be learned from Maya Bay, which became one of the most famous beaches in the world thanks to its role in the 2000 movie The Beach. Large numbers of visitors flocked to the area, polluting its waters and destroying its corals. Authorities eventually closed Maya Bay to tourists for more than three years until it reopens with tighter controls in 2022.
The White Lotus influence on their location has been significant. According to reports, the first season, filmed at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Wailea, Hawaii, resulted in a 425% annual increase in the hotel’s web traffic. There was also an increase in demand in Sicily, which was featured in the second season. It has been reported that the San Domenico Palace, a former monastery overlooking the sea that stars in the series, has been fully occupied for months. A villa at the Four Seasons Samui this month costs from around £900 per night; excluding service fee, taxes and coral reef protection fee.
Far from Samui’s white-sand beaches and pristine hotels is a striking symbol of the environmental cost of tourism: a mountain of garbage weighing 150,000 tonnes. The landfill, which burns in the afternoon heat and emits a disgusting stench, began piling up after the island’s incinerator malfunctioned more than a decade ago, according to residents. Another 150 tons are added to the pile every day.
Last year, residents were so enraged by the problem that they announced they would file a lawsuit against the municipality, the mayor and the governor of Surat Thani over the health threats posed by the landfill, which they said was polluting groundwater wells in their village. They were unsuccessful in obtaining compensation.
Samui deputy mayor Sutham Samthong said local authorities were in the process of moving the garbage and 150,000 tonnes had been shipped to the mainland in the past three years, halving the pile from 300,000 tonnes.
Sutham also said authorities are taking steps to protect the environment, including training hotel staff to educate tourists about respect for natural resources, creating awareness among locals about waste segregation and enforcing laws to control development.
But Samui Local Tourism Association president Panithan Boonsa, who helped coordinate the legal action, said there was a lack of balance between the island’s limited resources and the development of new resorts. “He really should slow down,” he said.
The impact of tourism on Samui during the pandemic has been highlighted. There are fewer cars, less pollution and sea turtles are returning to lay eggs on Samui beaches, Panithan said.
The pandemic was an incredibly difficult time for local businesses, especially small vendors whose income 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. He said there are new developments and hotels being built and if it brings in more customers that is a positive thing.
‘If there is no sea, sand and sun, no one will come’
The increase in the island’s population poses a challenge in terms of waste management and water supply. Estimates in 1998 indicate that Samui hosts more than 700,000 people annually. The number of tourists arriving at Samui airport in 2023 reached 2.2 million. There are also currently 70,000 local people and 200,000 people come to Samui to work.
Samui needs 30,000 cubic meters of water per day to meet the needs of all its residents and businesses. Most of it, 24,000 cubic meters, is brought to the island via an underwater pipeline from Surat Thani on the mainland, but reservoir resources are not enough to fill the gap. Sutham, the deputy mayor, said the government had promised a second pipeline but “they haven’t determined the timeframe yet”.
Large hotels buy water privately, but this is too expensive for residents. Many have purchased tanks to store water or extract groundwater when supplies run low. Residents reported that they had not been able to shower in their homes for days or had to use the toilet of a nearby temple because there was no water supply.
Anon Vatayanon, an environmental activist who owns a printing house on Samui, said more attention should be paid to how to ensure the island’s sustainability. “No matter how convenient it is or what we can achieve, we are not just attracting more people and depleting our natural resources. “No one will come without natural resources such as sea, sand and sun, which are Samui’s unique selling point.”
Additional reporting by Pirada Anuwech