KRABI — Residents on Monday asked that tourists visiting Railay Beach caves to stop etching messages and names into the rocks of the popular travel destination.

Local residents said a 200-meter stretch of cave and cliff walls leading up to Phra Nang Cave on Railay Beach are almost completely defaced by visiting tourists.

“We always warn tourists not to commit vandalism when we see them doing it. But we don’t have enough people to cover the area, especially since so many people visit per day,” said Somboon Ngafah, president of the Tourist Business Association of Ao Railay.

Read: Thailand’s Amazing Tourism an Amazing Mess: New Minister

Somboon said his association and officials from the Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park lack the manpower to guard the area.

The graffiti includes Latin, Cyrillic and Mandarin characters as well as initials within hearts.

Somboon said he hopes local hotels and business operators will convey to tourists that vandalism in the area’s caves, cliff sides, stalagmites and stalactites is harmful to the community.

“It’s wrong, and it destroys nature,” Somboon said.