Key facts
- Country
- Thailand
- Province
- Surat Thani
- District
- Ko Pha-ngan
- Total
- 21 km (8.1 sq mi)
- Time zone
- UTC+7 ( ICT )
via Wikipedia infobox
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Ko Tao (Thai: เกาะเต่า, pronounced [kɔ̀ʔ tàw], lit. 'Turtle Island') is an island in Thailand and is part of the Chumphon Archipelago on the western shore of the Gulf of Thailand. It covers an area of about 21 km (8 sq mi). Administratively it is a subdistrict (tambon) of Ko Pha-ngan District (amphoe) of Surat Thani Province. As of 2006, its official population was 1,382. The main settlement is Ban Mae Haad.
The economy of the island is almost exclusively centered on tourism, especially scuba diving. Scuba diving is extremely popular in Ko Tao due to clear visibility, inexpensive pricing, warm water, and the range of sealife to be seen.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ko Tao” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.