Tsunami five months on Tourists still keep distance

[Nicke]

SOUTH THAILAND: -- Five months after Thailand’s most popular tourist destinations were struck by a devastating tsunami, foreign tourists still have not returned and local businesses are struggling to stay afloat.

Although hotels are offering big reduction on room rates – with 30 per cent the norm – there are few tourists around to take up these offers.

Resort workers and locals on Phi Phi Island welcome the few visitors that have made it to the island.

“We never used to have a low season on Phi Phi. It was busy all year round. Now you can almost count the tourists,” said Jannee Jandamnernpong, a diving instructor.

His diving shop suffered only slight damage during the tsunami and he managed to stay in business. But business has become so bad, it is hardly worth the effort.

While up to 400 divers a month flocked to Phi Phi before the tsunami, the island is now lucky if 40 a month show up.

Sudjai Nukaeo, the owner of an Internet caf? on the island, is having problems just trying to break even.

“Today, I earned only Bt800. But I have to pay Bt20,000 a month for rent and then there is the electricity bill and Internet connection payments.”

Most of the 2,000 hotel rooms on the island before the December 26 tsunami were destroyed. There has been very little rebuilding and only a few hotels are operating.

Patricia Bonislawski, a tourist from Germany, said she was surprised to see how little had been done to revive the island.

“If you wander through the streets you still see the destruction and debris. I’m not going to sunbathe next to a construction site.”

However, in Phuket’s tourist centre of Patong things are nearly back to normal.

There was still some damage remaining near the beaches, but 90 per cent of the reconstruction has been completed, said Mathee Tanmanatragul, the former president of the southern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association.

Only 20 out of the 300 hotels on Phuket were still closed, he said.

However, the hotel occupancy rate in Phuket isn’t any better than on Phi Phi. While normal occupancy in low season is around 50 to 60 per cent, only 25 per cent of the rooms are taken on the island at the moment.

The business people of Patong are frustrated.

Ravin Sethichaiyen, owner of a Subway restaurant in Patong, said his takings are well down from the same period last year.

“Everything is well equipped [for tourism]. Please come and help us, we need you,” he appealed to tourists.

The few tourists in Phuket are mainly from the United States and Australia.

John Gray, who offers canoeing trips in Phang Nga Bay, said European visitors who usually arrive in droves at this time of year are virtually non-existent.

He said Europeans simply misunderstand the distances involved.

“They saw on TV how big the destruction was on Phi Phi and Khao Lak, but they don’t realise that Phuket suffered a lot less damaged.

Khao Lak is as far from Phuket as Manchester is from London,” he said.

“So, if 200 people died in an industrial disaster in Manchester would you cancel your trip to London? Of course not. So, why are people not coming to Phuket?”

Asian tourists are as thin on the ground as Europeans.

Kitti Phatanachinda, vice-president of Phuket Tourist Association, said this was because Asians believe it is bad luck to visit the site of a recent disaster. They believe in the spirit world, which means that if they visit a tragic place they will bring the bad luck back home with them.

He said Phuket probably suffered the most economically from the tsunami.

“Phuket was very hard hit because 80 per cent of the people depend on tourism for their livelihoods. Now that the tourists have gone, the economy is on a downturn.”

Thirty per cent of Thailand’s annual tourism income came from Phuket. But since the tsunami, there has been 77-per-cent less arrivals at Phuket airport and 300,000 people lost their jobs.

Still, people are hoping things will return to normal and the tourists will return to Phuket and Phi Phi for the high season, which begins in November.

But Mathee said Khao Lak would need at least two years to get back on its feet.

“The first tsunami was here and it was gone in an hour. The second “tsunami” in terms of human misery and economic disaster far exceeded the tsunami itself,” said Gray.

The tsunami hasn’t been out of the people’s minds.

“We still talk about the tsunami every day with friends, family or tourists, anyone who wants to know how it was,” said Sybilla Endemann, from the Oasis restaurant in Phi Phi.

--The Nation 2005-05-30

[aussie dollar]

Its a real shame have been to patong before and after, and now I think patong is great.the beach is better,beach road is not as crowded with stalls and a bit of planning for rebuilding has been good.
just wish the media would now show what a good job has been done to get it working again.
The article quotes “The first tsunami was here and it was gone in an hour. The second “tsunami” in terms of human misery and economic disaster far exceeded the tsunami itself,” .
myself when anyone asks me about patong I try to let them know its better than what it was and the people still need our help not so much in aid ,but them getting off there bums and visiting patong and then telling people its great.

[river]

That's true but my sympathy goes out to the guys who have businesses on Phi Phi they haven't received any aid or much help it's going to be tough with no hotels over there.