Word: phuket
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Patong beach, on the western coast of Phuket, Thailand, is the place to which many international journalists scrambled in order to report on the tsunami that hit Asia on Dec. 26. The death toll on the island numbered more than 200, at least half of them foreign tourists. Gradually, the scale of the destruction in Indonesia?which was home to some two-thirds of those killed by the tsunami?trickled into the world's newspapers and onto TV screens. But in those early moments after the disaster, it was the harrowing images transmitted from the most famous beach on Thailand...
...Today, much of the debris has been cleared away or hidden behind high fences, and damaged hotels and businesses have already reopened or plan to do so in the next few months. "The devastation," says O.B. Wetzell, an American resort developer and chairman of the International Business Association of Phuket, "was surgical. It wasn't total erasure...
...Tell that to those still planning their winter vacations. Locals in Phuket, from hawkers to hotel managers, say tourists, spooked by the thought of a vacation in a disaster zone, have avoided the holiday mecca. Beaches crowded before Christmas with several thousand sun worshippers?and whose euros and dollars and renminbi directly or indirectly support 70% of the local population?now play host to just a few hundred. Hotel occupancy has plummeted from the usual 90% to just 10-15%. International carriers?including Thai Airways?have canceled some direct flights to the island. It's now possible to spend...
...bear the same taint. In Sri Lanka and the Maldives, businesses have watched tourists disappear and dollars dry up. Even Bali, more than 4,300 km away from the hardest hit Indonesian province of Aceh, has seen canceled bookings. At an emergency summit of the World Tourism Organization in Phuket early this month, Secretary General Francesco Frangialli called the cancellations in the region "irrational." Speaking to delegates from around the globe, he urged governments to take swift action to get the tourists back "in order to alleviate the suffering of the affected populations...
...Even though my wife and I were far away from the tsunami that devastated South Asia, we still felt a jolt, as our daughter, son-in-law and twin two-year-old granddaughters were on the island of Phuket when the tsunami struck. Anxious hours passed before we learned they were safe. Tears not only of relief but also of sorrow were shed for the many parents who have little to rejoice about. The spontaneous generosity of those who are giving aid to tsunami victims has once again highlighted our common humanity. It contrasts sharply with the smallness...