It had been 18 days of nail-biting suspense, rain, mud, prayers, water pumps, dashed hopes and disgraced tech billionaires. But on 10 July 2018, the watching world got its happy ending: the final member of the young Wild Boars football team trapped in Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand was rescued from the narrow, flooded passages and carried to safety.

A year may have passed since the dramatic rescue mission to save the boys and their coach came to an end but for those living in the surrounding areas to Tham Luang, the afterglow of an event that made headlines around the world still lingers.

The cave, which used to receive an annual average of 5,000 visitors a year – mainly paying respects to the spirit of a lovestruck princess rumoured to have been killed there centuries ago – has, according to the Department of National Parks (DNP), received over 1.3 million visitors between October 2018 and April this year, rivalling the country’s most popular national parks. In the peak Thai new year season, it received up to 10,000 visitors a day.

Visitors to the Tham Luang Nang Non Cave Photograph: Amanda Mustard

For locals in the once-sleepy rural region of Mae Sai, it has provided a welcome economic boost. About 200 vendors have set up shop around the cave entrance to flog souvenirs to the tourist hoards. “It has completely changed my life,” said Siriporn Kuenkaew, 44, proudly standing over her stall decked with lychees, garlic cloves and oranges. “Before this I was just selling fruit at the weekend market, but after the cave became famous I set up here instead and since then I make a very good living. It is the same for so many people in my village, we are all very happy. The boys were saved and then we were saved too.”

At her nearby stall selling Wild Boars and Tham Luang rescue T-shirts, Sudjai Kingsuwan, 46, beamed widely. “After the rescue, I came here first to sell coconuts and now T-shirts and business is good, my income has gone up so much,’ she said. “Some days I have sold 200 T-shirts. My only fear is what will happen if interest in the cave dies down again and people stop coming.”

Shops now line the road leading to the entrance of Tham Luang Nang Non Cave Photograph: Amanda Mustard/The Guardian

The Thai government still has big plans to further capitalise on the Tham Luang cave phenomenon, with almost £1m allocated to make the area a specialist tourist destination. Another £1.3m has been set aside by the Chiang Rai governor to develop the area, with a shopping centre, restaurants, hotels and campsites in the works.

In addition, Netflix have purchased the rights to produce a series about the cave saga, with the Thai government, which set up a committee to tightly control media access to the boys and their coach. A separate film dramatising the rescue is already in post production. Tied into exclusivity deals with these projects, the 12 boys, aged 11 to 15, and their coach are not allowed to speak to the media.

Following their ordeal, 11 of the 12 entered a Buddhist monastery where they spent nine days as novice monks. They have since all returned to normal life but train together at the Ekkapol football academy, which was recently set up by their coach.

The boys were saved and then we were saved too Siriporn Kuenkaew

‘A special place, not just a news story’

The DNP plans to give Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non forest official national park status, covering some 4,745 acres. However, in the mountain village of Doi Pha Mi, which would be included in the national park area, not everyone is happy. Achaya Thamrontasnee, 36, owner of 71 view coffee shop, which housed the main operation control and command centre during rescue, expresses concern that the new status will come with restrictions that could impede on the traditional way of life.

Commemorative shirts sold outside of Tham Luang Nang Non Cave Photograph: Amanda Mustard

“Many of us in the village are worried that the rules for national parks will mean we can no longer go out and pick bamboo to build houses or gather mushrooms in the forest, or worse still they will force people to move away, as they have done to villages in other national park areas in Thailand,” said Achaya. “We have asked government officials many times for reassurance but we have got no response.”

Even with a year having passed since the rescue’s dramatic finale, the excitement of local and foreign tourists visiting Tham Luang cave was palpable. “This is so surreal,” remarked a passing American tourist.

Among them were visitors from Australia, China and Singapore, though most were Thai, some having travelled for upwards of seven hours to visit Tham Luang. Sumalee Wichaidait, 42, sits in the newly-built visitor centre in front of a 13m long specially-commissioned memorial portrait of all those who contributed to the rescue with tears in her eyes.

“I wanted to see this place with my own eyes, it was such a big part of our life last year when the rescue was happening,” says Sumalee, who had travelled from Bangkok with her nine-year-old son Chai. “We never gave up hope and I prayed for them every day, it united everyone in Thailand.”

A boy views photos at the entrance of Tham Luang Nang Non Cave Photograph: Amanda Mustard

Porn Khamsang, 50, sits quietly next to a statue erected in memorial to Saman Gunan, the Thai Navy SEAL diver who died in the rescue operation after running out of oxygen in the cave. “I live nearby and I like to come up here often, just to sit,” she says. “It is a place that makes me happy and reminds me of the miracles that can happen in life.”

For now, much to the disappointment of some visitors and relief to others, the cave remains closed off indefinitely behind a green fence, topped with barbed wire. Plans to open it to the public this year – though only a short 2.5km route through the first few chambers – were scuppered after it took too long to retrieve all the diving equipment from the depths of the tunnels before the monsoon rains set in again.

Still, children and adults press their faces into the railings, trying to peer into the small yet dark entrance at the top of mossy green steps. A monk, barefoot in traditional orange robes, holds up his iPhone for a photo.

The closure has been most frustrating for those who were exploring the cave long before the Wild Boars found themselves trapped on a dark ledge last June. Kamol Khunngamkuamdee spent six years mapping Tham Luang with Vern Unsworth, the British diver who became instrumental in last year’s rescue mission and who found himself at the receiving end of an attack by tech billionaire Elon Musk. A year on from the rescue, Kamol calld it “plain wrong” to keep the cave closed.

“The government should do better,” he said. “People should be allowed in at least to the entrance, so they can see it for themselves and learn about the cave, not just about the rescue. Only then will people understand and respect Tham Luang as a special place, not just as a news story.”