PHUKET, Thailand (5 Sep 2005) -- Some eight months after the tsunami destroyed coastal resort areas and killed more than a quarter of a million people, tourists are continuing to shun Phuket, Phi Phi Island and Khao Lak. According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), international tourist arrivals are down a staggering 67 percent in Phuket. Conversely, tourists are flocking back to other tsunami-hit areas including the Maldives and Sri Lanka, where credit card spending is up 10 percent over last year according to VISA Card International. Tourist arrivals are also up in the Philippines and Vietnam, Asia's hot new tourism destination that some describe as similar to Thailand 30 years ago before overdevelopment degraded Phuket's beaches and coral reefs. While some blame Thai tourism officials for not spending more on marketing the former "tourism capital of Asia", money alone may not be enough to revitalize Phuket's tourist industry, which was damaged by the tsunami and then crippled by mostly European resort and dive shop owners who lashed out at the press and blasted tourists for canceling holidays to Thailand. "In the aftermath of the tsunami, the press did its job by accurately reporting the facts in a dozen tsunami-hit nations about the worst natural disaster in our lifetime," said CDNN Editor-in-Chief Stanford Suzuki. | | While tourists are flocking back to the Maldives and Sri Lanka, they still shun Phuket where foreign dive shop owners, mostly Europeans, lashed out at the media and blasted tourists for canceling holidays in the aftermath of a natural disaster that killed more than 250,000 people. "At the same time, the tsunami exposed the callous greed of Phuket's mostly non-Thai developers, hotel operators and dive shop owners who threatened reporters for telling the truth and harassed tourists, even as rescuers were searching for their loved ones," Suzuki added. "I'm afraid that's a "paradise forever lost " problem that advertising can never fix." © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
