[aussie dollar]

HOPE IT OPENS ON THE 18TH IS A REALLY GOOD NIGHT OUT


Phuket Fantasy shuts its doors



Phuket _ Phuket Fantasy amusement park has been temporarily closed because of a sharp drop in the number of visitors following the tsunami disaster.

Pin Kewkacha, chairman of Phuket Fantasy Plc, said his amusement park has suffered a loss of 150-200 million baht due to the lack of visitors. So he decided to close it from Jan 8-18.

The park was usually visited by 3,000-6,000 tourists a day.

The number has dropped to about 15 a day. Tour companies had cancelled their reservations until the end of next month.

Mr Pin said Phuket usually hosted about one million tourists, 25% Thais and 75% foreigners, from January to March, but the number of visitors had virtually dropped to zero. The problem was now critical for the 500,000 people who work in tourism-related businesses in the six tsunami-hit provinces, he said