White Lotus effect threatens to bury paradise island beneath mountains of rubbish

Popular TV series has threatened a paradise island - by overwhelming the destination with more tourists.

Koh Samui in Thailand has long suffered from overtourism, but this looks to be exacerbated by The White Lotus, which has recently been filming its third season there. The show is due to air next year, and will likely entice many more tourists to Koh Samui.

The small 95-square-mile island, located in the has attracted thousands of visitors over the years, for its luxury resorts and villas. Pre-pandemic tourism levels have already returned, with 3.4 million tourists heading to the island in 2023. This number is expected to rise again by 10-20 per cent for 2024.

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However, with the new season of The White Lotus fast approaching, many have started to wonder how much these numbers will increase by in the next few years. Also, what impact rising numbers of visitors could have on the island. According to experts are worried the increased traffic will worsen the pre-existing problems on the island, including the 200,000 tonnes of waste sitting at a landfill site. Another worry is the continuation of rapid, often unregulated, development on the mountainside.

“Right now we’re still facing the problem of waste management—from the community, from the hotels, from tourists,” Dr. Wijarn Simachaya, president of the Thailand Environment Institute, a non-profit that focuses on sustainable development issues, told Fodor’s. “Koh Samui has 180-200 tons of waste added per day. But we still cannot find a good solution.”

WhilWhilest the island does have an incinerator, Dr. Simachaya expressed that it is used infrequently and lacks the proper operation and maintenance to reduce waste on the island. Whilst huge amounts of the rubbish on the island has been transported to the mainland, it is insufficient to deal with the backlog and continued daily accumulation of waste from residents and visitors.

Dr. Simachaya claims that the local authorities in Koh Samui need to establish a long term plan to manage the waste, for both solid waste and wastewater. Whilst most of the have private water shipped in and there is a pipeline which is connect to the mainland to send freshwater, Dr. Simachaya thinks the authories need to be doing more, as the island has a wastewater facility but does not open it.

Rather than open the water treatment facilities, he says the city will “just discharge the water into the sea.” Another issue that has faced the island is continued unregulated developments. Illegal construction, including private villas and resorts, has occurred according to Kannapa Pongponrat Chieochan, an assistant professor at Thammasat University who spoke to Channel News Asia.

"Law enforcement is very weak because of political interference," they said. As a result, many new developments are emerging on the island, increasing the risks of landslides and impacts on marine and wildlife.

Filming of the second season of The White Lotus in caused interest in the destination to spike by 50 per cent. If the same happens for Koh Samui, the pressures on the island will only increase.